


Haikyuu!! Return to Despair!

by chukipye



Series: Dangan Ronpa AU [3]
Category: Dangan Ronpa, Haikyuu!!
Genre: Danganronpa AU, F/F, M/M, Multi, Sequel time!, prepare for death and feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-05 03:43:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 20,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10296707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chukipye/pseuds/chukipye
Summary: A simple trip to a new museum becomes so much more complicated when Kindaichi finds himself, Kunimi, and several others trapped in the museum with only one way out.Kill someone and get away with it.IE The Dangan Ronpa AU Sequel





	1. Prologue P1

Kindaichi wasn’t surprised that Kunimi was already asleep, leaning on his shoulder. The bus had been going for nearly half an hour, occasionally stopping to pick up passengers. Some he unfortunately recognized.

“Don’t get sick this time, idiot.” Kageyama didn’t seem to notice his former teammates sitting near the front, too busy arguing with the small ginger.

“I won’t get sick, Bakayama!” The shorty ( _What was his name again? Hinata?)_ argued back.

“P-Please don’t fight!” A small blonde girl wearing a Karasuno jacket was fidgeting as she followed them.

“Ah! Hinata!” Kindaichi braved a glance backwards and saw one of the taller passengers who had been aboard the bus when they climbed on waving frantically in the direction of the Karasuno duo.

“Lev! What are you doing here?” Kindaichi really didn’t care about the conversation anymore and turned back, still hearing the two talking loudly. From what he gathered, ‘Lev’ was from Nekoma. Why someone from Tokyo was going to a museum in Miyagi he had no clue.

Kindaichi spotted even more Karasuno members and resisted the urge to sigh.

“Stop fidgeting.” Kunimi grumbled, jabbing his elbow into Kindaichi’s side, causing the boy to yelp.

“I-I’m not trying to! It’s just, why is it the day we decide to go to the museum, half of Karasuno decides to go too?!” Kindaichi hissed, He spotted the gorgeous black-haired manager get on board and speak to the driver briefly before joining her team near the back and groaned.

“Even their managers are here.” He whimpered. It was truly unfair that Karasuno got not just one female manager, but TWO. One totally gorgeous and the other super shy and adorable.

“Who cares? The museum is supposed to be huge. We probably won’t even run into them.” Kunimi yawned, trying to fall back asleep. The bus stopped yet again and Kindaichi blinked as he recognized the trio climbing aboard the bus.

“Aone-san!” The tall white-haired Dateko blocker blinked as HInata waved at him excitedly. He raised a hand and waved back shyly. The brown-haired teen next to him snickered and gently hit his shoulder.

“Looks like you’ll have someone to sit next to today.” He teased. Aone nodded and the trio headed back towards the Karasuno group.

“There’s a lot of volleyball players going to the museum today.” Kindaichi noted as the bus began moving again.

“Iwaizumi-san said it was a really interesting museum, unlike the other boring ones. They probably heard about it too.” Kunimi stretched out slightly, before leaning back against Kindaichi. The usual position for long bus rides.

“How many more times are we going to stop?” Kindaichi groaned as the bus stopped _again_.

“Hopefully no more. It’s hard to nap with the bus stopping and starting….oh come the fuck on.” Kunimi scowled as the two recognized the uniforms of the two smaller members of Shiratorizawa. How could they not, when Oikawa had instilled the rivalry of the two teams in their head since middle school.

“Language, Kunimi.” Kindaichi mumbled, earning a smack to the arm. He locked eyes with the setter, Shirabu, who scowled and pulled the bowl-cut first year into the front row.

“ _Alright, that was our last stop! Next time we stop, we’ll be at the museum!_ ” The driver called out over the intercom. There was a sigh of relief throughout the bus, mostly from those who had been on the bus the longest. The bus was moving a bit faster now that it didn’t need to stop every ten minutes to pick up passengers. Kindaichi settled for looking out the window as Kunimi fell asleep again, watching the scenery go by. The bus entered a tunnel, lights dimmed. Kindaichi blinked in confusion as he realized there were no other cars in the tunnel. His confusion increased as the bus slowed to a stop, since this was definitely not the museum.

“I thought he said we weren’t stopping until we were at the museum?” Someone from the back voiced what Kindaichi was sure everyone was thinking. The tall brunette from Datekou stood up, making his way to the driver’s door.

“Hey! Excuse me?” He knocked on the door. It slowly swung open and before he could move, the driver fell over on top of him. The teen yelped as he fell to the floor of the bus, the driver limp on top of him. Almost immediately, Aone stood up and hurried to the front of the bus, easily lifting the driver off of his teammate.

“T-Thanks Aone…holy shit.” The teen sat up, catching his breath. Aone mumbled something that made the teen blink in confusion.

“Huh? I’m not bleeding.” Kindaichi noticed the red staining the Datekou teen’s white shirt and his eyes widened, his gaze turning to the bus driver Aone was still holding up. Blood was dripping off his arm onto the floor. Aone quickly put him down in an empty seat, looking pale.

“I-Is he…okay?” Goshiki asked, peeking over the seat.

“I-I think he’s dead.” The Datekou teen near the front stood up, shaking slightly.

“ _Ding-Dong! That’s correct!”_ Everyone froze at the new voice over the intercom. Kunimi woke up with a start, looking especially confused.

“ _Welcome to the super-awesome Museum Tour! I hope you’re ready for a super fun time!”_ The voice was high-pitched and already getting on Kindaichi’s nerves.

“What the fuck is going on?” Kindaichi heard the Glasses-kun from Karasuno snap.

“What tour? We aren’t even at the museum yet.” Shirabu scowled. The voice laughed over the intercom.

“ _Don’t worry! We’ll be there beaaaary soon! I’ll help you kill the time so don’t worry!”_ The intercom crackled, before turning off.

“W-What does he mean by that?” The shortest teen from Tokyo asked, glancing around.

“Don’t worry Shibayama! I’m sure this is just a prank from our senpai.” The spiky brown-haired Tokyo teen reassured him.

“I don’t know why a prank from your senpai would affect the rest of us though.” The freckled Karasuno first year pointed out. Kindaichi was starting to get nervous as they sat in the tunnel, nothing happening.

“That’s it. I’m out.” The brunette Datekou teen walked to the bus door, pulling the lever to open it. But the door didn’t open. There were clicking noises and Kindaichi realized they were the windows locking.

“Hey! W-What’s going on!?” Kindaichi tried to move the window, but it didn’t budge. There was a faint hissing noise and a sickeningly sweet smell began filling the bus.

“I-Is this gas!?”

“Don’t breathe it in!”

“I don’t want to die!” The bus erupted into chaos as the teens tried to get out of the bus. Kindaichi felt Kunimi slump against him, unconscious.

“K-Kunimi!” Kindaichi tried to shake him awake but felt sleepiness creeping into his brain. He saw others slumping in their seat, the effects of the gas taking its toll on them. It wasn’t long before Kindaichi’s vision blurred, before he slumped against Kunimi, his world fading to black.


	2. Prologue P2

Kindaichi woke up with a groan, his head pounding. He sat up, rubbing his eyes before opening them. It took a minute to adjust to the bright light, but it looked like he was in a lobby of some sort. He glanced around, noticing the other passengers from the bus starting to stir. He noticed Kunimi was lying on his lap and his face turned bright red.

“K-Kunimi! Wake up!” He shook the boy gently. Kunimi grunted and just curled up,

“I don’t have morning practice today Mom…” The teen grumbled. Kindaichi blinked.

“Wait is that why you’re always late to practice? You lie to your mom?” He asked, surprised. Kunimi just reached up, reaching around for Kindaichi’s mouth before covering it with his hand.

“Shhhhhhhhhh it’s too early.” Kunimi whined. Kindaichi sighed before rolling his friend off of his lap, standing up. Kunimi sat up, grumbling.

“Where are we?” He asked, yawning. Kindaichi looked around.

“I think…the museum lobby.” Kindaichi realized. There was definitely elements of a normal museum lobby, with a map in the center right in front of a large kiosk.

“Was that just a weird dream? Or did we seriously get kidnapped by some high-pitched psycho?” The brunette Datekou blocker from before asked. Aone shrugged as he helped his teammates to their feet.

“Considering the fact there is steel covering the entrance door, I think that wasn’t a dream.” The gorgeous Karasuno manager pointed out. Kindaichi looked behind him and sure enough, the large entrance to the museum was sealed off with solid steel.

“What the hell is going on?” Glasses-kun scowled as he looked around the room. Kindaichi remembered him asking the exact same question on the bus. Maybe this time he’d get an answer.

“ _That’s a beary good question! Allow me to explain~!”_ Everyone jumped as the kiosk in the center flickered, before a black-and-white bear appeared on the screen.

“That’s a bear. That is a talking teddy bear. Is this some kind of joke?” Shirabu looked very unamused. Goshiki was shifting uncomfortably next to him.

“ _This is definitely not a joke! I hereby welcome you all to the super-fun Museum Killing Tour!”_ Kindaichi’s jaw dropped and he was sure he wasn’t the only one shocked.

“K-Killing tour? W-What?! I don’t want to die!” The blonde manager was trembling, looking around at her teammates.

“ _Wellllll if you don’t want to play along I guess you guys can just stay at the museum forever. I hope you guys like education because there’s lots of lessons to be taught here! Upupupupu~”_ The bear laughed. It was high-pitched and sent shivers down Kindaichi’s spine. The bear flickered off screen and floating walls of text appeared instead.

“So. This is the ‘fantastic’ museum Iwaizumi-senpai recommended to us. So far it’s great.” Kunimi muttered, breaking the silence. Kindaichi bit his lip, looking around at the mix of strangers and rivals he somewhat knew.

“Perhaps we should introduce ourselves properly for those who don’t know each other. After all, it’ll be easier to work together that way.” The smaller teen in the group of red jackets suggested. Karasuno’s black-haired manager nodded.

“My name is Shimizu Kiyoko. I am a third-year at Karasuno.” She bowed her head politely. Kindaichi felt blessed to know the name to the gorgeous face.

“I-I’m Yachi Hitoka! First year at Karasuno! It’s nice to meet you!” Yachi bowed lower than Kiyoko did. Kindaichi wondered if maybe she felt intimidated by the rest of the group. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but some of the members seemed intimidating, even though he was on the taller side of the height spectrum.

“I’m Hinata Shouyou! I’m a first year at Karasuno and I’m going to be the ace!” The ginger kid seemed overly proud of the fact. Kageyama rolled his eyes and jabbed his fingers into Hinata’s side.

“It’s just introductions, you don’t need to include unnecessary stuff.” He scowled. Hinata stuck his tongue out at him before swinging his arm at him. Kageyama easily held him back with a hand to his forehead.

“My name is Kageyama Tobio. First-year at Karasuno.” He bowed, allowing Hinata to free himself and smack Kageyama’s arm. Before the two could truly start fighting, Freckles stood in between them.

“That’s enough you two! This isn’t the time or place for fighting.” He scolded. The two boys just huffed and looked away.

“Ignore the two idiots. My name is Yamaguchi Tadashi and that’s Tsukishima Kei.” He shot a look at Glasses-kun, who frowned at him.

“I can introduce myself, Yamaguchi.” He folded his arms. Yamaguchi looked sheepish.

“Sorry Tsukki.” He rubbed the back of his head, grinning. Kindaichi could tell they had been friends for a while.

“Alrighty, well my name is Shibayama Yuuki and I’m the first year libero at Nekoma High.” The small red-jacket teen continued introductions. His two teammates both seemed very energetic. Kindaichi was already feeling exhausted and they hadn’t even introduced themselves.

“My name is Inuoka Sou! I’m also a first year at Nekoma!” The one with spiky brown hair greeted with a bright smile.

“I’m Haiba Lev and I’m going to be the next ace at Nekoma!” The freakishly tall silver-haired teen stood proudly.

“Oh god there’s two.” Tsukishima groaned. Kindaichi agreed with his sentiments.

“Well, now that the city boys have finished, let’s go back towards the country. My name is Futakuchi Kenji, third year at Date Tech high and captain of the Datekou volleyball team. These are my precious kouhai, Aone Takanobu, and Koganegawa Kanji, second and first year respectively.” The brunette from earlier greeted, Koganegawa waving eagerly while Aona just nodded in greeting. Something about the captain reminded Kindaichi of Oikawa and it was unsettling.

“I’m Kunimi Akira, first year at Aoba Johsai high school.” Kunimi went next, cutting off Shirabu, who looked annoyed. Kindaichi resisted the urge to laugh. He might not seem like it, but Kunimi could be surprisingly petty.

“My name is Kindaichi Yuutarou! Also a first year at Aoba Johsai high school!” Kindaichi made sure to bow, especially now that he knew there was upperclassmen in the group. He noted that Shirabu made sure to wait this time before opening his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by his own teammate.

“M-My name is Goshiki Tsutomu and I’m going to be the next ace at Shiratorizawa!” Goshiki was practically trembling with excitement. He reminded Kindaichi of a puppy.

“Dear god there’s three of them now.” Tsukishima let out another annoyed sigh. This time Yamaguchi shushed him as Shirabu scowled.

“I am Shirabu Kenjiro. Second year setter from Shiratorizawa.” Shirabu was gritting his teeth, obviously pissed at continuously being interrupted.

“Alright now that we’ve established who our fellow prisoners are, can we get back to the important matters? Like finding an exit?” Futakuchi asked.

“There’s an exit right there, Futakuchi-senpai!” Koganegawa seemed confused. Futakuchi let out an irritated sigh.

“I meant one that isn’t blocked off.” He explained slowly. Koganegawa let out a sound understanding and Kindaichi fought the urge to face-palm.

“M-Maybe we should read the rules? Just so we don’t make the bear angry and have him eat all of us or something.” Yachi suggested, eyes flickering to the still-glowing kiosk. Shimizu approached the kiosk, reading some of the files aloud.

“ _Rule 1: Tour Group Members must spend their time efficiently learning. Therefore, they will be unable to leave the Museum unless they prove themselves._ ” She began.

“Prove ourselves? How do we do that? Do we have to take a test?” Inuoka asked, blinking. Hinata and Kageyama visibly paled at the thought.

“I doubt it. That’d be too simple. Let Shimizu-san continue.” Shibayama frowned. Shimizu nodded and continued reading.

“ _Rule 2: ‘Nighttime’ is from 10 pm to 7 am. Some areas are off-limits during this time, so be aware of this._ So there must be more areas to look for.” Shimizu looked like she was thinking hard. Futakuchi approached, standing next to her to continue reading.

“ _Rule 3: Feel free to explore the Museum as you wish. But any destruction of security cameras or locks will result in punishment._ Huh. Punishment? What, is he gonna make us clean the museum or something?” Futakuchi rolled his eyes.

“ _Rule 4: Violence against head Curator Monokuma is not allowed._ Monokuma…that must be the bear. So if we see it, we can’t hurt it.” Kindaichi read aloud. A few teens grumbled, Shirabu looking disappointed that he couldn’t punch the bear.

“ _Rule 5: Anyone who kills a fellow tour member and becomes “blackened” will be considered properly educated and allowed to leave…_ ” Kunimi continued. The room went silent.

“W-Wait wait wait wait. K-Kill someone?! L-Like murder?!” Yachi shrieked. Hinata looked nauseous at the idea.

“T-They got to be joking. Who would kill someone?! That’s messed up!” Yamaguchi was biting his lip, looking around nervously.

“ _Rule 6: After three or more people find a body for the first time, a Body Discovery Announcement will play and Investigation Time will begin. During Investigation Time, tour members can investigate the murder in any way they wish, as long as it doesn’t break any other rules in the process._ So in case someone does decide to take this seriously, the rest of us get a chance to stop them.” Tsukishima pointed out. This seemed to somewhat calm the group, but the fact that they were supposed to kill each other still made Kindaichi panic. Kunimi gently nudged him, probably sensing his unease.

“It’ll be fine. Nobody will kill anyone.” Kunimi reassured him, still looking bored with the situation. But Kindaichi hadn’t known the boy for three years to be unable to tell his normal bored looks to his ‘secretly-very-nervous’ bored looks.

“ _Rule 7: After Investigation Time is over, the Class Trial will be held. If the murderer is caught during the Trial, they alone will be executed._ Executed? So if we catch the bad guy, they die too?” Lev asked, frowning.

“That’s what it sounds like. Makes sense. A life for a life.” Shirabu folded his arms. Kindaichi was a bit wary of him, but at the same time he doubted the teen would kill. Heck, he doubted ANY of them would kill. They’re just high schoolers after all.

“ _Rule 8: If the murderer isn’t caught during the trial, the remaining Tour Members will be executed._ Wait so if we DON’T catch the bad guy, we all die!?” Inuoka yelped. The group was starting to get antsy again, many of them sending suspicious looks to one another.

“ _Rule 9: If the murderer survives, they will be allowed to leave the Museum._ So to ‘prove ourselves’ we have to kill someone and get away with it. T-That’s beyond messed up!” Shibayama said, paling.

“ _Rule 10: Additional rules can be added as necessary._ So more rules can be added later on as the bear wishes.” Shimizu finished. There was an awkward silence as they all stood there.

“S-So…what should we do?” Hinata finally asked.

“So there’s two options. We play along in the bear’s messed up murder tour. Or we sit around and wait for someone to realize we’re missing and send help. Or at least wait out the bear until it gets bored and lets us go.” Tsukishima folded his arms. Kindaichi blinked before his eyes widened.

“Ah! That’s right! I was supposed to text Iwaizumi-senpai as soon as we arrived! So he’ll know something’s wrong when I don’t send a message.” He remembered. He reached into his pocket for his phone and pulled it out.

“…this is not my phone.” He realized, frowning at the device. It looked like an IPhone, and had a weird pixel version of himself on the back. Everyone else reached into their pockets and pulled out similar phones.

“What are these for?” Yamaguchi wondered as they powered them on. There were normal functions, such as texts and call options, but the only contacts available were the people in the room and Monokuma. There wasn’t an option to add numbers or send any sort of message to anyone not in the contact list.   
“There’s an app that has all the rules on it. So we can double-check if we’re not sure.” Kunimi noted, tapping the icon.

“There’s a map too! Wow there’s a lot to look at! Apparently a hotel is connected with lots of rooms and a kitchen! We definitely should go exploring!” Hinata looked excited with his idea. It wasn’t that bad of an idea, as much as Kindaichi didn’t want to admit it.

“We should stick in groups to explore. It’ll be safer, especially since we don’t fully know what we’re dealing with.” Shimizu suggested. Almost immediately, the group began partnering up. Yachi stepped close to Shimizu, Lev threw his arms around Inuoka and Shibayama, and Kunimi just nudged him lightly with his elbow.

“So. Shall we begin?”


	3. Prologue P3

“Where do you want to start?” Kunimi asked. The others had already separated, either going into the one exhibit hall that wasn’t blocked by bars, or down the hall that supposedly led to the hotel. Kindaichi nervously looked towards the exhibit entrance. No doubt meant for something scary, since the door was a giant monster jaw and the hall was pitch black from what he could see.

“L-Let’s go to the hotel first.” Kinidaichi suggested. Kunimi nodded, following Kindaichi as he quickly made his way down the hall. There was a public bathroom along the way, and any windows were blocked off. He couldn’t even tell if it was daytime or nighttime.

“There’s the Datekou students.” Kunimi noted as they turned the corner. Sure enough, the tall teens were examining the hall of doors. As the two approached, Kindaichi noticed that pixel versions of themselves were on the doors, much like the ones marking their phones.

“Are these where we’re supposed to sleep?” Koganegawa was asking aloud. Futakuchi shrugged as he tried to open the door with his pixel on it. Aone put a hand on his shoulder and pointed to a scanner by the lock.

“Ah! Good catch, Aone.” Futakuchi pulled out his phone, swiping it at the scanner. The light turned from red to green and Futakuchi opened the door.

“And there we go! Oh wow this isn’t half bad.” Futakuchi whistled as he opened the door wider, looking around the room. The bed was decently-sized, with light green covers. There were two bookshelves on one wall and a desk on the other. There was another door on the other side of the room, probably leading to a personal bathroom if it’s a hotel.

“Holy shit they gave me candy.” Futakuchi was beaming as he spotted the large jar of sour candy.

“Someone kidnapped us and wants us to kill each other, and you’re going to actually eat the candy they gave you?” Kunimi asked, raising an eyebrow. The captain just shrugged and popped one in his mouth.

“The rules say only someone who got caught murdering someone else gets killed, or someone who breaks the rules. So I doubt the bear would kill me with this.” He pointed out. Kindaichi blinked. He hadn’t thought of that.

 _So the bear can’t just randomly kill us._ He thought, feeling a bit better. Aone and Koganegawa were unlocking their own rooms, looking inside.

“Why is there a bird plushie in here?” Kindaichi heard Koganegawa ask as they walked down the hall, looking for their own rooms. On this hall, it appeared to have the Datekou teens on one side and the Nekoma teens on the other. The path separated once again, with the option to go to the left, down another hall, or up some stairs. Kindaichi began climbing the stairs, Kunimi groaning slightly as he followed.

“Why do our rooms have to be upstairs?” Kunimi sighed as they reached the top of the stairs. Sure enough, their rooms were right by the stairs. Unfortunately, their hall mates were Karasuno. And Kageyama is right next to Kindaichi’s room.

“We have the King right next door. Great.” Kindaichi frowned as he unlocked his room using his phone like Futakuchi had. His room was laid out similarly to Futakuchi’s, though he didn’t have a jar of candy. He did have a volleyball on his bed, as well as a fuzzy blanket. He was slightly embarrassed to have a plush dog, but he knew he couldn’t sleep without some sort of plushie so he was grateful.

“What’s your room like?” Kindaichi yelped and Kunimi appeared behind him, quickly hiding the plushie behind him.

“Kindaichi I’ve known you for three years and we’ve had countless sleepovers. I know you sleep with plushies still.” Kunimi pointed out, chuckling a bit. Kindaichi’s face flushed as he put the dog back in its normal spot.

“W-What’s in your room?” Kindaichi asked, eager to change the subject. Kunimi shrugged.

“Lots of blankets and pillows. And an alarm clock.” He was eyeing Kindaichi’s fuzzy blanket. Kindaichi chuckled and grabbed it, tossing it to him. Kunimi made a whining noise as it fell on top of his head, pulling it off and messing up his hair.

“Go ahead. I know you need a million blankets.” Kindaichi chuckled. Kunimi nodded, holding the soft blanket tight.

“We should keep looking around.” Kunimi suggested. Kindaichi nodded and followed him out of the room, making sure to shut it tight. Kunimi tossed the blanket onto his own bed ( _Jesus he had so many blankets already_ ) before shutting his own door.

“I hope the rooms are sound-proof if we have to share a hall with Karasuno.” Kunimi grumbled as they went back downstairs.

“Considering the bear wants us to kill each other, the rooms are definitely soundproof.” Both boys let out a totally manly shriek as Tsukishima spoke, standing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Oh calm down. Are all elites scared this easily?” Tsukishima rolled his eyes. Kindaichi was grateful the baldy crow from Karasuno wasn’t here to join in.

“Tsukki, stop bullying them. Let’s keep going.” Yamaguchi pulled on Tsukishima’s arm, leading the taller teen up the stairs.

“I hate him. I hate literally all of them. Except maybe Freckles. And their managers.” Kunimi muttered. Kindaichi nodded in agreement before the two continued down the hall they hadn’t been down. Much to their delight, they found a dining room and more importantly a kitchen, where it smelt like someone was cooking.

“Is someone making lunch? Or…dinner? What time is it?” Kindaichi asked as they approached the kitchen.

“Dinner time.” Shimizu answered as they opened the door. She and Yachi were preparing…something. Curry and rice? Maybe?

“It smells really good.” Kunimi sniffed the air again, a small smile spreading on his face.

“I would hope so. The bear said not only do we get fresh ingredients, but they’re replenished every morning. So we won’t have to worry about starving to death. Although I wouldn’t mind having a turn-based-system on who cooks.” Shimizu let out a little sigh as she stirred the pot. Yachi nodded, nearly tripping as she placed down some more vegetables.

“We can ask everyone who knows how to cook and who’s willing to learn when we all meet up again later.” Kindaichi suggested. Shimizu smiled at him and he felt his heart race.

“That’s a good idea, Kindaichi-kun. Why don’t you two get back to exploring? We’ll be done by the time you are.” Kindaichi felt himself nodding to whatever she said and let himself get pulled out of the room by Kunimi.

“You’re actually hopeless.” Kunimi huffed, pulling Kindaichi back the way they came.

“W-What? I was just… W-wait wait wait Kunimi where are we going?” Kindaichi started to resist, but Kunimi was determined. There was only one place they hadn’t explored yet and that was the super-scary Horror exhibit.

“You said we should explore, Kindaichi, so that’s what we’re doing.” Kunimi said firmly. Kindaichi was starting to wonder if he pissed him off somehow.

“B-B-But Kunimi! Y-You know I’m not…good… with horror stuff!” Kindaichi protested as they re-entered the lobby. He flinched as he heard a scream, followed by laughter, coming from the exhibit. Kunimi paused, still firmly holding onto Kindaichi’s arm and turned, frowning at him.

“Kindaichi. It’s a Museum Exhibit. Nekoma is already in there, and they are clearly not dead. So there is nothing to worry about. Besides…I’m right here.” Kindaichi swore Kunimi’s cheeks turned pink as he turned back around and pulled Kindaichi into the darkness of the Horror Exhibit.

_It’s fine. It’s fine. Nothing to be scared about, Kunimi is right here._

_Kunimi is right here._


	4. Prologue P4

“Kunimi. Kunimi please I’m sorry for whatever I did.” Kindaichi whimpered as Kunimi pulled him into the dark hallway leading to the horror movie exhibit. Posters of famous horror movies were glowing on the walls, providing the only source of light.

“Don’t be a baby. It’s just a museum exhibit.” Kunimi kept going, ignoring Kindaichi’s protests. They finally reached the end of the hallway and Kunimi opened the door to the next area. This room looked much more like a normal museum exhibit, with portraits of serial killers and plaques underneath them with details about them and their kills (in excruciating detail). Much to Kindaichi’s horror, their murder weapons were also attached to the wall next to them.

“That bear _really_ wants us to kill someone.” Kunimi noted, pulling a knife off the wall and examining it before putting it back.

“I hate this. Can we go back now?” Kindaichi looked around nervously. Kunimi shook his head, turning the corner behind the middle section of portraits. Kindaichi followed him, and was shocked when Kunimi was nowhere to be seen.

“K-Kunimi? This isn’t funny!’ He slowly made his way further into the room, pushing his way through dark curtains to the next room. The room was blank except a crickety spiral staircase that led down.

“Warning. Stairs hurt. Watch your step (and your back).” Kindaichi read the sign next to the stairs, a picture of a stick figure pushing someone down the stairs underneath it. He gulped and took a deep breath before going down the stairs, checking behind him first. In the lower floor, there was one main room and a room to the side. In front of him was a projector and a blank wall ahead of him. He watched his shadow shrink as he approached and let out a shocked shout as his shadow began to move on its own.

“Kindaichi?” Kindaichi screamed in surprise as a hand landed on his shoulder. Kunimi looked amused at his reaction.

“K-Kunimi! Don’t do that to me!” Kindaichi whimpered, smacking the boy’s arm off of him. Kunimi snickered as he watched the shadows move around.

“It’s an illusion. The projector is messing with the shadows. It’s how it works.” Kindaichi jumped again as Shirabu walked out from behind the wall, Goshiki right behind him. Kindaichi felt a little relieved that Goshiki looked equally as frightened as he felt.

“Have you guys seen the rest of the exhibit yet? There’s not much left. A theater with shitty horror movies and some closed-off area labeled Sound Effects. The bear popped up and scared the shit out of Goshiki before saying he wasn’t done with it yet.” Shirabu continued. Goshiki pouted slightly.

“I-I wasn’t scared Shirabu-senpai! I was just startled!” He protested. Kindaichi felt his pain.

“Shimizu-san and Yachi-san are making dinner for us. Should we head back?” Kunimi asked, glancing at Kindaichi. He nodded quickly, eager to leave the scary exhibit. Goshiki seemed relieved that they were leaving and hurried out. Shirabu hesitated before turning the direction they had come.

“HEY! FOOD’S READY!” He shouted before turning to follow Goshiki. Kindaichi heard footsteps and moved out of the way quickly before Hinata could run him over, Lev and Inuoka right behind him. Shibayama and Kageyama were taking a much slower pace, having a conversation of some sorts. Kunimi and Kindaichi exchanged looks before following them out towards the dining room. Everyone else was hanging around, some of them sitting already.

“Alright! Everyone grab your meals from the kitchen and then we’ll discuss what we found.” Futakuchi said once everyone was in the dining room. It was chaos, all the hungry teens rushing into the small kitchen to get food. They somehow managed to dish out food for everyone without any fights. Kindaichi hadn’t even realized how hungry he was until he took the first bite. His eyes widened at how _good_ the food was and he shoveled it in quickly. Even Kunimi was eating at a quicker pace than usual (which wasn’t saying much, really).

“So, what did we find out? Other than the lack of exit?” Shibayama asked once everyone had finished.

“The food is restocked every day, so we won’t have to worry about starving to death.” Shimizu began, gathering her and Yachi’s plate to take into the kitchen.

“We also each get a hotel room to stay in. They appear to be somewhat personalized to their owners. You can unlock the door by swiping your phone in front of it.” Kunimi added, yawning as he leaned back in his chair.

“There’s two floors of rooms to stay in. Nekoma, Shiratorizawa and Datekou were on the first floor. The rest of you were on the second.” Futakuchi recalled.

“The Horror Exhibit was super scary! Everything was dark and there were real weapons in there! There was even a little theater to watch scary movies in!” Hinata continued, using his arms to indicate the pure terror he had faced.

“Well if Hinata says its ‘super scary’ it can’t be that bad.” Tsukishima leaned on one hand, smirking slightly when Hinata began sputtering.

“There’s also intense details about serial killers and their methods of killing and escaping capture. Probably the bear trying to give us hints on how to get away with murder.” Shirabu added, ignoring Hinata entirely.

“The bear really is desperate huh? Too bad for him! Cuz I bet nobody here would kill anyone. After all, murder is super messed up.” Lev grinned, confident in what he said. Kindaichi looked around and saw everyone somewhat agreeing with him.

“Sooner or later the bear will get bored with us and let us go. As long as we just don’t play along.” Shimizu said.

“We still need to watch out for his rules, but we don’t have to kill each other. We’ll just stay until someone notices we’re missing and sends help. Everyone thinks we’re going to the museum, and nobody stays at the museum for more than a day.” Shibayama pointed out.

“So while we wait, we should do our best to live peacefully with each other. Which brings up the idea of who cooks. It’s not fair to make Shimizu-san and Yachi-san cook every meal for us. Does anyone else know how to cook?” Futakuchi asked. Kunimi reluctantly raised his hand, as did Hinata, Goshiki and to his surprise, Koganegawa.

“Wait, Koganegawa you can cook?” Futakuchi asked, eyes wide. The blonde-and-black haired teen nodded enthusiastically.

“Yup! My mom taught me so I could make my own lunch for school instead of waking her up early for it.” He seemed proud of himself.

“Goshiki, put your hand down. They’re talking about cooking, not baking. Especially not stress-baking.” Shirabu scowled. Goshiki slowly lowered his hand, blinking.

“Well baking is kind of like cooking. But you just make sweets.” He pointed out.

“Baking is still a good start. It’s not too much different and it also shows you know how to work in the kitchen.” Shimizu said kindly. Goshiki’s proud grin came back while Shirabu rolled his eyes, but stayed quiet.

“I don’t know how, but I’m willing to learn or just help out in the kitchen.” Kindaichi offered.

“Me too! I wanna help!” Inuoka added, grinning. Shimizu nodded, taking note of who all had their hands up.

“Even those who don’t know how to cook or are unwilling to learn can help with keeping the dining room and kitchen clean. Starting with putting your dishes in the dishwasher.” Everyone nodded and grabbed their plates, heading into the kitchen much more orderly than when they were first getting food. They had just barely put everything away and went back to the dining room when the intercom crackled.

“ _Ding Dong! It’s now 10 PM! The kitchen is now closed!_ ” There was a loud noise and a metal sheet fell in front of the kitchen door, blocking it off.

“Good thing we all got out before that happened.” Yamaguchi broke the silence first.

“So do we just…go to bed now?” Kindaichi asked, looking around. Aone was the first to move, heading to the exit.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Have a good night, kiddos. We’ll see ya tomorrow, right?” Futakuchi waved as he followed his underclassman out, Koganegawa right behind him.

“Race you to the rooms, Kageyama!” Hinata took off, Kageyama right behind him shouting about an unfair head start.

“W-Wait for me!” Yachi ran after them.

“We can discuss more in the morning. Let’s have a good night sleep.” Shimizu nodded at them before following the others out, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi right behind her.

“Hey hey, do you wanna share a room? It’ll be like a sleepover at training camp!” Lev grinned at his teammates, who grinned back and nodded.

“That’ll make it less scary, too.” Inuoka added. The three hurried off, no doubt to prepare for their sleepover.

“That’s…not a bad idea.” Kunimi mumbled. Kindaichi glanced down at him.

“Do you want to share rooms too?” He asked, hesitantly. Kunimi nodded, yawning.

“More blankets that way too.” Kindaichi chuckled as the two headed up to their rooms.

“You better leave me some though.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end of the prologue! Chapter 1 officially starts next!  
> Thank goodness huh?


	5. Chapter 1- School Life

Nothing.

That’s all they did for at least a week. The group of teens would wake up from Monokuma’s morning announcement (much to Kunimi’s irritation since 7 AM is pretty early), go down, eat breakfast, then wander around the horror exhibit or stay in their rooms for the day until dinner.

“What do you want to do today?” Kindaichi asked as he and Kunimi put away their dishes from lunch. Kunimi sighed.

“Who cares? There’s nothing to do. We’ve seen all that’s available to us. The most we can do to kill time is watch movies, but someone doesn’t like horror movies.” Kunimi gave Kindaichi a pointed look. Kindaichi smiled sheepishly back at him.

“We could always ask if someone has other DVDs. I think Yachi has some animated ones.” He pointed out. Kunimi rolled his eyes but before they could respond, their phone buzzed. The two exchanged confused looks before pulling out their phones.

“It’s a text from Kageyama. He needs us to go to the Horror Exhibit immediately.” Kindaichi read. He frowned but closed up the dishwasher anyways after putting the rest of the dishes away. The two made their way to the Horror Exhibit, not really hurrying. There were others making their way to the exhibit as well, looking equally as confused.

“Kageyama, what’s wrong?” Shimizu was asking as Kindaichi and Kunimi found them. Kageyama looked distressed, standing next to a steel door.

“Wait wasn’t this the ‘under-construction’ door? Where did the warning signs go?” Shibayama asked, frowning.

“It was open and the idiot decided to go in without waiting and now the door is locked behind him.” Kageyama scowled.

“ _Shut up Bakayama! How was I supposed to know the door would shut behind me!?”_ Hinata shouted through the door.

“The bear said he’d only open the door if we all showed up.” Kageyama continued, ignoring Hinata.

“How do you know this isn’t a trap? Like the bear could be waiting to kill us!” Koganegawa pointed out.

“The bear can’t kill us unless we break a rule. Which we haven’t.” Futakuchi reminded him.

” _That’s unfortunately true. Thank you all for coming in such a timely manner!”_ Monokuma suddenly appeared out of nowhere, startling all of them.

“You literally held Hinata hostage until we came.” Kunimi frowned.

“ _That’s not important. What IS important is that you guys can now appreciate the hard work of your Museum Curator who finally finished the last part of the Horror Exhibit!”_ The bear seemed proud of itself.

“Why wasn’t it ready before we showed up?” Lev asked, confused.

“ _That is ALSO not important. Now, come along kiddos!”_ The door opened, causing Hinata to yelp in surprise, falling backwards. He must’ve been leaning against the door.

“Get up.” Kageyama helped him up as the rest of the group filed into the new room.

“Sound Effects?” Yachi read the sign, blinking.

“ _Exactly! I’ve managed to collect all sorts of fun sound effects for you kids! Why don’t you give them a try?”_ Kindaichi definitely didn’t trust this. Along the wall were headphones, enough for everyone.

“I’ll pass.” Tsukishima turned to walk out of the room, but the door slammed shut again.

“ _Now now, I put so much effort into this and you don’t want to try? I’ll just keep the door shut until everyone listens!”_ The bear called from outside.

“Did we…seriously fall for that?” Futakuchi groaned. Aone turned to the headphones and pulled a pair on. Slowly the group (after exchanging wary looks) pulled on a pair of headphones themselves. After everyone’s headphones were on, there was the sound of them turning on.

“ _Welcome to the Horror Exhibit interactive, featuring wonderful Sound Effects that your beautiful and kind Curator gathered. Please Enjoy!”_ Monokuma’s voice was even more annoying through headphones. Kindaichi was mid-eye roll when he jumped, sudden screaming playing through his headphones. He went pale and pulled the headphones off, backing away quickly.

 _T-That sounded like Iwaizumi-senpai_ He realized, trying to ignore the ringing in his ears. Looking around, he could see similar expressions of shock and fear on everyone’s faces.

“T-That was Natsu! W-Why does he have audio of her screaming!?” Hinata whimpered, looking extremely worried. Kindaichi had no clue who Natsu was, maybe a family member? Even Aone looked shaken up.

“ _Well, how was the interactive?”_ Monokuma asked as the door opened again.

“What. The hell. Was that?!” Futakuchi snapped. Kindaichi could tell the only reason he wasn’t attacking the bear was the rules.

“ _Well you kiddos were being so boring, I decided to give you guys a motive! I’m sure you are wondering how I got those audio clips. But I’m not gonna tell ya! If only you could leave and check on your friends and loved ones!”_ Monokuma laughed before he vanished. The room was silent.

“T-They were fake.” Goshiki suddenly said, gaining everyone’s attention. The boy was shaking, fists clenched.

“T-They had to be fake. Cuz there’s no way Ushijima-san would make a sound like that. S-So they were faked audio clips. Everyone is okay.” He said firmly. His eyes flickered to Shirabu, who nodded.

“I don’t enjoy agreeing with him, but Goshiki has to be right. If something had happened to them, someone would’ve figured it out and come for us. So they have to be okay.” Shirabu explained. Kindaichi did feel a bit better after that, but the sound of Iwaizumi screaming was still in his mind.

“C-Can we go now? I-I don’t want to be here anymore.” Yachi whimpered. She was still very pale. Shimizu put an arm around her gently and pulled her out of the room. The room emptied quickly, everyone eager to leave the motive behind.

“Who did you hear?” Kunimi asked as they walked out of the room.

“Iwaizumi-senpai. What about you?” Kindaichi asked. Kunimi was quiet for a minute.

“I heard my mom.” Kindaichi blinked. It seemed Kunimi was lying but he didn’t know why.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure they were fake.” Kindaichi reassured him.

“Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to be comforting you?” Kunimi teased. Kindaichi frowned as they left the Horror Exhibit.

“I’m perfectly capable of comforting people!” Kindaichi protested.

“When you aren’t the one needing comforting, sure.” Kunimi chuckled. Kindaichi pouted but followed Kunimi back towards their rooms.

“Are you seriously going back to sleep?” Kindaichi asked as Kunimi opened the door to his room.

“That was a lot of stress. I’m tired now.” Kunimi flopped down into his bed, already buried under his dozens of blankets. Kindaichi chuckled.

“I’ll be next door, reading. I’ll wake you up for dinner.” Kunimi mumbled something very similar to “Okay Mom” as Kindaichi left, going back to his own room. He grabbed a book he’d been halfway through reading (some murder mystery) and continued reading. He preferred fantasy books over detective novels, but apparently the bear really wanted to inspire some murder, since those books were the only kind he’d be given. Time flew by and before he knew it, his phone was buzzing. Shimizu had sent out a group text when dinner was ready. He stood up and stretched before leaving his room, calling Kunimi’s phone.

“Whazzzzat?” He heard Kunimi grumbled, slightly muffled.

“Dinner is ready. Come out.” He chuckled at Kunimi’s tired groan, but it wasn’t long after they hung up that he exited his room.

“Who cooked tonight?” Kunimi asked, yawning.

“Uhhh I think Hinata did. And the Nekoma kids are in charge of cleaning up.” Kindaichi recalled. There was a chart in the kitchen with the job list for the day.

“Good. Hinata makes decent food.” Kunimi rubbed his eyes as they went down the stairs. From the sound of it, everyone else had already grabbed food and was eating.

“This is so good, Hinata!” Lev was saying as they walked into the dining room. From the looks of it, there was spaghetti and meatballs tonight. Kindaichi brightened and hurried to the kitchen, eager for food. He got a large plate and took a seat, Kunimi right behind him.

“Thanks Lev! Spaghetti is Natsu’s…” Hinata trailed off, smiling fading. No doubt he was thinking about the screams from earlier.

“Hinata, those screams weren’t real. They might’ve sounded real, but they weren’t.” Yamaguchi said softly. Hinata nodded, but he didn’t seem to really believe it.

“The bear just wants us to really want to leave, so we’d kill someone. That means he’s getting desperate.” Futakuchi pointed out.

“Which means as long as we keep doing what we’re doing, he’ll get bored and let us leave.” Koganegawa added. Dinner was mostly silent after that, a few side conversations starting but ending just as quickly. Tension was higher than it had been on the first day. As soon as they were done eating, people left, apparently eager to go back to their rooms.

“Do you guys need help?” Kindaichi asked as the Nekoma teens began cleaning up the plates.  
“No, we’re fine. Thanks for offering though.” Inuoka smiled, but it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. Kindaichi and Kunimi exchanged looks before getting up and leaving the dining room.

“I hate this.” Kunimi suddenly said, pausing outside the dorm rooms.

“I think everyone hates this situation.” Kindaichi pointed out, blinking.

“No… I mean this tension. I was starting to enjoy hanging out with everyone. It was kind of… fun. But now everyone is nervous again.” Kunimi explained. Kindaichi hadn’t thought about it, but now that he did, he had actually been having a fun time with the others, even Kageyama.

“You’re right. But this’ll all blow over tomorrow. Everything will go back to normal soon. Or well…sort of normal. We’re still stuck here though.” Kindaichi chuckled weakly. Kunimi rolled his eyes but smiled.

“Thanks, Yuutarou.” Kindaichi’s face turned bright red as Kunimi entered his room, shutting the door behind him.

 _H-He just… oh my god_. Kindaichi had a million thoughts in his head as he stumbled back into his own room. He fell back on his bed, covering his blushing face with his hands.

“Ohh my god he’s going to kill me one day.” He mumbled. He fumbled around, reaching for his book. Not that he’d actually remember what he read, but he had to do something to calm down. He continued reading, only half-paying attention. He’d be confused when he continued later, especially with the important plot twists he was skimming over (apparently the main character had a twin or something?) but he kept going.

“ _Ding-Dong! It’s now 10 PM! The kitchen is now closed!”_ Kindaichi jumped when the intercom went off, nearly dropping the book on his face. He bookmarked it and set it aside, yawning. He hadn’t even realized it was already 10. He used to be able to stay up until 11 or 12, but staying here had adjusted his sleep schedule to wanting to sleep at 10 and wake up at 7, sleeping in between the Monokuma alarms. He yawned as he lied down in bed, making sure to plug his phone into the charger. It buzzed once, lighting up with a message.

“ _Good Night, Yuutarou._ ”

 

“ _Ding-Dong! It’s now 7 AM! Let’s have another beautiful day!”_ Kindaichi groaned as he sat up. He felt like he had just put his head down to sleep, and it was already morning. The only time that happened was when he was really stressed out, like the night before tests and important matches.

“I guess that motive really freaked me out.” Kindaichi mumbled to himself as he reached for his phone. He saw the message Kunimi had sent him the night before and smiled to himself before getting up, grabbing a new pair of clothes from the drawer and throwing them on. He and Kunimi were supposed to make  breakfast today. Kindaichi left his room, turning to knock on Kunimi’s door and wake him up. But to his surprise, Kunimi was already outside his door, preparing to knock on Kindaichi’s door.

“You’re…awake?” Kindaichi blinked, shocked. Kunimi yawned.

“The bear personally came to wake me up, since I’ve been ignoring his morning messages.” He explained. He didn’t seem very happy about this.

“I would hate to wake up to that. You can take a nap after breakfast.” Kindaichi suggested. Kunimi nodded, yawning once more as they headed down to the dining room. Yachi and Shimizu were already there at the table, as well as Tsukishima and a sleeping Yamaguchi.

“Morning.” Kindaichi greeted as they headed to the kitchen. Yachi and Shimizu waved as they walked by, while Tsukishima just ignored them.

“Oh shit did someone bake cookies last night?” Kindaichi whistled as he spotted the trays of cookies on the center counter of the kitchen. A few were missing but they looked good.

“They look like chocolate chip.” Kunimi’s eyes brightened. Kindaichi knew he loved chocolate chip cookies.

“They should’ve probably put them away…though…” Kindaichi trailed off as he spotted a glimpse of red as he reached for a cookie. He moved around to the other side of the counter and immediately dropped his cookie, letting out a shout of surprise. Lying still on the floor was Shibayama, eyes wide and unseeing. Kunimi was about to ask what was wrong when he also spotted the teen.

“Holy shit.” Kunimi breathed, taking a step back.

“I-Is he…?” Kindaichi didn’t want to check, he didn’t want to think that someone was dead. Kunimi knelt down, putting two fingers on Shibayama’s neck as they were taught during health class.

“H-He has no pulse.” Kunimi mumbled, standing up again.

“Hey, is everything okay? We heard a shout.” Yachi poked her head in, concerned.

“W-Wait Yachi!” Kindaichi tried to warn her but she was already walking to the other side of the counter. She spotted Shibayama’s body and let out a shriek.

“ _Ding-Dong! A Body has been discovered! After a short Investigation period, we’ll have a Class Trial!”_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw man someone's darn diddly dead!  
> Time to get rolling


	6. Chapter 1- Investigation P1

“ _Ding-Dong! A Body has been discovered! After a short Investigation period, we’ll have a Class Trial!”_

The intercom crackled off again, leaving the teens in silence. Almost immediately, Tsukishima, Shimizu, and a half-asleep Yamaguchi ran into the kitchen.

“Oh my god.” Shimizu froze when she saw the body. Yamaguchi went pale and even Tsukishima looked shocked.

“W-What happened!?” Yamaguchi asked, still staring at Shibayama.

“We came in to make breakfast and found him like this.” Kunimi explained, his hands fidgeting in the end of his jacket.

“A-And he’s really dead? Really REALLY dead?” Yachi whimpered. She looked like she was about to faint.

“Yachi, let’s wait outside for the others.” Shimizu put an arm around her shoulder, leading the younger girl out, back into the dining room.

“We should keep Inuoka and Lev out. They might mess up the crime scene trying to get to him.” Tsukishima glanced out into the dining room, no doubt keeping an eye out for Shibayama’s teammates. Kindaichi couldn’t help but feel he might be more worried about their reactions to finding out their friend was dead than the crime scene.

“Keep Lev and Inuoka out of what?” Hinata asked, poking his head in, Kageyama right behind him. Tsukishima ignored him and looked over his head.

“It looks like everyone is in the dining room. Hinata, if you want to do something useful, keep Lev and Inuoka distracted and out of the kitchen.” Tsukishima said firmly. Hinata pouted.

“Why do I have to listen to you? You’re not the boss of me!” He looked like he was about to fight, but one look from Tsukishima and he immediately backed off.

“Hinata, we want you to do this because we don’t want them to see the dead body of their friend and teammate. And considering you’re the closest to them out of us, you’re the only one who can do it.” Yamaguchi explained. Hinata blinked, confused.

“Body? W-wait that announcement thing was real!? D-Does that mean…?” Oh great, now the ginger looked like he was going to puke.

“Lev, can you take the idiot to the bathroom? He’s going to be sick.” Tsukishima called out. Kindaichi couldn’t help but feel somewhat impressed as Lev immediately agreed, wrapping an arm around Hinata and moving him out towards the bathroom.

“I could’ve taken him.” Kageyama frowned.

“But this gets rid of Lev for the time being.” Tsukishima pointed out, folding his arms.

“Has anyone seen Shibayama?” The group in the kitchen froze as Inuoka appeared, looking confused. The situation got even worse as Yachi let out a whimper and nobody answered Inuoka.

“W-What do we do?!” Kindaichi hissed as Inuoka approached the kitchen.

“Is Shibayama in here?” Inuoka asked, peeking his head in. Everyone exchanged looks, not sure what to say.

“Inuoka-san, you should wait in the dining room.” Yamaguchi suggested, moving to gently push the taller teen out of the kitchen, but Inuoka frowned and pushed his way in.

“Why isn’t anyone answering me?! Where is Shibayama!?” He insisted, looking around. Kindaichi winced as Inuoka finally saw the body behind the counter.

“….Yuuki?” Inuoka was quieter than Kindaichi had ever heard him before. He was brought out of his thoughts as Inuoka pushed him and Kunimi out of the way, kneeling next to Shibayama’s body.

“W-What happened?! I don’t get it!” Inuoka looked up at them, tears in his eyes. Nobody answered him, since nobody had the answer.

“ _What’s not to get?”_ The teens in the kitchen jumped as Monokuma appeared, falling out of the ceiling onto the center counter. He had a black folder under his arm. At his voice, the group in the dining room all looked up towards the window that showed the kitchen. Soon the rest of the teens were crowded either in the kitchen or near the window.

“ _I can tell you what happened! One of you murdered your tour group members!”_ Monokuma laughed happily.

“What?! No way! We all agreed that we’d just wait it out!” Koganegawa protested.

“Apparently someone didn’t have the patience.” Tsukishima scowled.

“ _Since this is the first time, I’ll explain what happens now! You guys have a bit of time to investigate the murder of Shibayama Yuuki! Use your phones to take pictures of anything you think is important and you can share those pictures later during the Trial!”_ Monokuma explained. There was a click and a flash and everyone looked at Goshiki, who looked sheepish.

“I didn’t mean the click that.” He mumbled. Shirabu took his phone, scowling.

“Shut up and pay attention.” Shirabu scolded. Goshiki nodded, looking determined.

“ _Thank you for the demonstration on how to use a phone camera, Goshiki. Now I’ll leave you with this and you can begin investigating!”_ Monokuma dropped the black folder onto the counter and vanished. Kindaichi hesitated before picking up the folder, since nobody else moved to grab it.

“Monokuma File #1. Victim: Shibayama Yuuki. Time of Death: 9:35 PM. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation from poison. No other wounds.” He read aloud.

“Jesus Christ. This is actually happening.” Futakuchi let out a deep sigh, running a hand through his hair.

“We should split up. We can’t all fit in the kitchen to investigate, but we also need someone to watch the body. Someone should stay with Lev and Inuoka too.” Yamaguchi suggested.

“Hinata is already with Lev.  When they come back, we’ll stay with them and Inuoka-san.” Shimizu offered. Inuoka shook his head.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll keep Yuuki’s b…body safe in case someone comes back to mess with it.” Inuoka said firmly. Nobody seemed willing to argue with him. Kindaichi probably would do the same thing if Kunimi had died. The thought worried him and he glanced at Kunimi, who was fiddling with his phone.

 _Oh, he’s taking pictures._ Kindaichi realized as Kunimi firmly pressed down on a button. He must’ve figured out how to turn flash off.

“The file thingy said there was poison right? I bet there was some in the Horror Exhibit next to all the serial killer biographies. If they had real weapons, they probably had poison somewhere.” Koganegawa pointed out.

“That’s…surprisingly smart of you.” Futakuchi blinked. Aone nodded in agreement as Koganegawa beamed.

“So some of us should go back to the Horror Exhibit and look for something missing and some of us should look around here. Feel free to explore anywhere else you think could be important.” Shimizu said. Everyone nodded in agreement and separated, most of the group heading to the Horror Exhibit. Kunimi turned to Kindaichi, pocketing his phone.

“So, where do we begin?”


	7. Chapter 1- Investigation P2

“The file says Shibayama died at 9:35 PM. So that’s right before Night Time, but a bit after dinner. He was supposed to do dishes and stuff after dinner right?” Kindaichi glanced at Inuoka, who nodded.

“W-We stayed after to do dishes but we were kind of messing around. Lev ran off after a bit, cuz he hates doing dishes or cleaning up and I finished the dishes with Yuuki. We finished putting everything away around 7ish? We headed back to our room to relax for a bit. I think I fell asleep at some point though because the next time I woke up it was at Monokuma’s morning announcement and Yuuki wasn’t there.” Inuoka explained. Tsukishima raised an eyebrow.

“Did you ever find Lev?” He asked. Inuoka blinked and shook his head.

“I think he ended up back in his own room. He was pretty shaken up by the screams. I think he heard one of our senpais.” Inuoka bit his lip.

“You don’t really think Lev would kill his own teammate, do you?” Kindaichi asked, eyes wide.

“Not really. Lev isn’t that competent or heartless. I’m just getting all the details.” Tsukishima was a mystery. Was he insulting Lev, or defending him?

“Shibayama was killed by poison, I wonder where it came from?” Yamaguchi looked around the kitchen. Kunimi frowned as he picked up one of the cookies.

“Maybe from these? There were a few missing when we got here. We didn’t eat any.” He suggested, setting the cookie back down.

“Someone baked poison into cookies? How would they know someone would even eat them?” Yamaguchi asked, frowning.

“We’re a bunch of hungry teenagers who haven’t had anything sugary for nearly a week. I’m pretty sure any of us would eat them the second we found them. Kindaichi nearly ate one.” Kunimi pointed out.

“It’s a good thing we found Shibayama before we all ate the cookies and died. This could’ve been a massacre.” Tsukishima mused, giving the cookies a thoughtful look.

“Was there only one batch? We really should make sure there isn’t any extra we might eat accidentally later.” Yamaguchi began double-checking the cupboards for any extra cookies.

“There’s some burnt ones in here.” Inuoka had pushed open the lid to the trash, peeking in.

“That’s a whole lot of cookies. Jesus Christ, how did someone even make this many!?” Inuoka whistled. Kindaichi peeked in and his mouth dropped. There was at least three other batches in the garbage.

“Maybe someone is a stress baker. Yahaba-san made all those cupcakes before our practice match with Karasuno.” Kunimi recalled. Kindaichi shuddered, remembering the sugary hell their senpai had put them through.

“And yesterday definitely would’ve put stress on all of us.” Tsukishima had begun searching through the cupboards, pulling out different ingredients. He opened up the flour and the sugar, examining both.

“What are you doing, Tsukki?” Yamaguchi asked, blinking in confusion.

“If someone poisoned cookies, they probably added the poison to the ingredients.” He explained before looking up at Kindaichi and Kunimi.

“Why don’t you two go do something useful and go search the Horror Movie Exhibit with the others? Most of them are incompetent and probably won’t find anything useful. You two at least have somewhat of an idea of what to look for.” Tsukishima went back to searching for cookie ingredients. Kindaichi and Kunimi exchanged looks before leaving the kitchen.

“I can’t tell if he’s complimenting us, or insulting everyone else.” Kindaichi muttered as they walked by Lev, Hinata, Shimizu and Yachi, all sitting in the dining room. Lev was quieter than usual, probably having found out about Shibayama.

“We still need to figure out where Lev went after ditching cleaning duty.” Kunimi reminded him as they headed to the Horror Movie exhibit. They spotted Shirabu and Goshiki having an intense conversation near the entrance, but when Shirabu spotted Kindaichi and Kunimi, he scowled and pulled Goshiki away to the nearest public bathroom.

“They’re acting weird too. I guess anyone would in this situation though.” Kindaichi mused. Kunimi nodded, leading the way into the Horror Exhibit.

“So we’re looking for someone who poisoned people?” Kindaichi glanced around at the serial killer exhibit. Kageyama was wandering around too, examining plaques.

“Yeah. Or at least a killer who doesn’t have their weapon anymore.” Kunimi pulled out his phone, prepared to take pictures. Kindaichi went from plaque to plaque, examining each one.

“I think I found it.” Kageyama suddenly called. Kindaichi and Kunimi jumped, not expecting him to suddenly speak, but hurried over.

“Oogami Sakura, famous martial artist, committed suicide via poison and nearly killed her friends in the process.” Kageyama read.

“That name sounds familiar.” Kunimi frowned as he picked up the poison container next to the plaque. He opened it, sniffing it.

“Please don’t put that in your mouth.” Kindaichi watched, biting his lip. Kunimi rolled his eyes and put the lid back on the container, putting it in his pocket.

“I’m not going to put potential poison in my mouth. The poison looks like white powder, so it could easily be switched with sugar or flour.” Kunimi explained. Kageyama looked confused.

“Why would someone mix poison with sugar or flour?” He asked.

“We think someone poisoned those cookies in the kitchen, so they could’ve kept it with them in case someone caught them baking the cookies. Then they could say it was just sugar or flour.” Kunimi glanced around the room.

“Was there any other poison around?” He asked. Kageyama shook his head.

“Not that I could find. I checked all the other portraits. Unless you think there’s something like a janitor’s closet somewhere, but we didn’t find one while exploring so I don’t think there’s poison anywhere else.” Kageyama said. Kindaichi nodded, pausing to think.

“So the only thing I can think to do is talk to Lev…” He trailed off as the intercom crackled.

“ _Alrighty kiddos, time is up! It’s time for the Class Trial! Meet me back in the lobby by the kiosk and I’ll take you to the trial room! Reminder: Class Trials are MANDATORY so make sure you show up!”_ The three teens all exchanged looks of concern.

“He’ll probably just come take us anyways. We might as well go with him.” Kunimi finally broke the silence, turning to walk out of the room. Kindaichi followed, pausing when Kageyama didn’t immediately follow them.

“You coming?” Kindaichi asked, glancing back at him. Kageyama blinked, surprised before hurrying to catch up.

“R-Right!” The three made their way to the lobby, the other teens gathered around the kiosk.

“ _Alrighty, looks like everyone is here!”_ Monokuma was sitting on top of the kiosk, legs crossed.

“Where exactly is the trial room? We already saw everything unlocked.” Futakuchi frowned. Monokuma laughed and suddenly the ground began to rumble. The kiosk rose up from the ground and opened, revealing a hollow tube.

“ _Just get in and slide down. It’s like one of those fancy water slides, but with less water!”_ Kindaichi didn’t trust this one bit, and it was obvious nobody else did either.

“ _Okay okay, fine you babies. I was gonna make it fun but we can go the boring way too.”_ The kiosk closed again and sank fully into the ground, revealing bright red doors behind it.

“ _There’s an elevator back there. Once everyone files in, it’ll take you to the Trial Room. I’ll be waiting!”_ The bear jumped into the hole the kiosk had vanished into, leaving the teens behind. There was a pause as nobody knew exactly what to do. Finally, Inuoka stepped forward, walking to the red doors and pushing them open. Lev followed behind him, and soon everyone else followed. The doors shut behind Kindaichi, the last one to enter, and the room began to rumble as it went down.

_So I guess we have to find out who killed Shibayama? I’m not sure who it is, but we’ll definitely find out!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyyy that throwback to DanganRonpa 1 :3 (the game)  
> We'll find out the killer next chapter


	8. Chapter 1- Trial

The trial room was fairly large with a circle of trial stands in the center.

“ _Alrighty kids, find your stand! No trading allowed.”_ Monokuma was sitting on a judge chair, a big red button in front of him. Kindaichi found his stand, right in between Lev and Kageyama. Kunimi was across the way, next to Hinata and Shimizu.

“U-Um, c-can we maybe get rid of this?” Yachi’s eyes flickered to the stand next to her, empty aside from a wooden board with Shibayama’s face on it, a red X over it.

“ _Aw, are you saying you want Shibayama to leave? It’s rude to exclude people, even if they’re dead.”_ Monokuma scolded.

“That’s not Yuuki. Don’t even try to say it is.” Inuoka frowned.

“ _Kids are so rude nowadays. Do you want to hear the rules or not?”_ Monokuma pouted. Kindaichi was starting to feel more annoyance than fear when it came to the bear.

“What rules? All we have to do is figure out who killed Shibayama. If we don’t find the right killer, we all die.” Tsukishima pointed out. The bear sank further into his chair.

“ _The last group was way more fun than you guys. Whatever. Get to it then.”_ The bear was sulking now.

“So Shibayama died from poison, right? That’s kind of weird. Where would someone even find poison anyways?” Koganegawa began. Kunimi reached into his pocket and pulled out the vial he had taken earlier from the Horror Exhibit.

“There were portraits of killers in the Horror Exhibit with weapons. One of them had poison. I grabbed this while we were investigating.” Kunimi explained.

“Hey! How do we know you didn’t have that all along?” Hinata asked, frowning.

“Idiot, I was with him when he grabbed it. Kindaichi too.” Kageyama scowled. Hinata glared back at him.

“How was I supposed to know that, Bakeyama?!” Hinata shot back.

“Now isn’t the time to fight. Kunimi-san, are you saying someone took the poison from the Horror Exhibit, gave it to Shibayama-san, and then brought it back?” Yamaguchi asked, trying to continue the debate. Kunimi paused, thinking.

“I guess? Otherwise we wouldn’t have found it.” He finally responded.

“I dunno, if someone handed me that container and told me to drink it, I definitely would’ve been suspicious. And Shibayama is waaaaaaay smarter than me. So he wouldn’t just… drink poison.” Lev pointed out.

“Well we did have this theory that maybe the poison was baked into the cookies in the kitchen. Some were missing when we showed up this morning. Then Shibayama wouldn’t have known he was eating poison.” Kindaichi explained.

“Kunimi, what does the poison look like? Is it a liquid?” Tsukishima suddenly asked. Kunimi blinked before opening it, showing the inside to the others.

“It’s white and powdery.” Futakuchi frowned.

“Sugar.” Aone suddenly said. Everyone looked at him, confused.

“It looks like sugar.” Aone clarified. For someone so large and intimidating, he didn’t seem excited about having all the attention on him.

“Aone is right! But there’s still so much left in it. With all the cookies that were made, there should be practically none left. There were even all those burnt ones in the trash.” Yamaguchi recalled.

“But the sugar container in the kitchen was empty.” Tsukishima suddenly said. Kindaichi remembered him going through all the ingredients in the kitchen before they had left.

“The ingredients in the kitchen are refreshed every night according to Monokuma. So the only reason that the sugar would be empty is if it was something Monokuma couldn’t replace. Like poison!” Yachi realized.

“So whoever baked the cookies used poison instead of sugar, intending to kill whoever ate them. Which leaves us with who baked the cookies.” Tsukishima finished.

“Shibayama died pretty late too, right? 9:35 is right before Night Time. And Inuoka and Lev were with him for a while after dinner to clean up. So when would someone have snuck in to bake cookies?” Futakuchi asked.

“Lev ran off pretty soon after we started cleaning, since he doesn’t like chores. Yuuki and I finished around 7 and went back to our room. I fell asleep until morning and Yuuki wasn’t there.” Inuoka repeated the story he had told them earlier.

“So at some point between 7 and 9:45, someone went to the Horror Exhibit, got poison, went to the kitchen and switched it with sugar, went BACK to the Horror Exhibit to put the sugar in the place of poison, then go all the way back to the kitchen and made cookies.” Shirabu sounded doubtful. To be fair, it was a pretty convoluted plan. Kindaichi probably wouldn’t have believed it either in normal circumstances.

“Lev, where did you go after ditching cleaning duty?” Hinata asked. Lev blinked.

“Oh! I went to the Horror Exhibit!” He said immediately. There was shocked silence.

“You… Did you literally just admit to going to the Horror Exhibit after we said the killer had to have gone there?” Kindaichi asked, stunned. Lev was either stupid or completely innocent.

“Well, I didn’t kill Shibayama, so why would I lie about where I went? I figured Shibayama and Inuoka wouldn’t look for me there since they didn’t like it after the scary screams.” Lev explained.

“So you totally could have taken the poison and waited for them to be done cleaning to go switch it with sugar.” Goshiki pointed out. Lev’s eyes widened and he frantically shook his head.

“I already said it wasn’t me! I wasn’t the only one in the Horror Exhibit anyways!” He protested.

“Wait. Who else was in there?” Futakuchi asked, frowning.

“I didn’t really get a good look at them. I ran past them in the dark hallway by the stairs. I know they were shorter than me.” Lev remembered.

“Lev. Almost everyone here is shorter than you.” Inuoka reminded him. Lev rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Well they weren’t SHORT short. They were definitely taller than Hinata.” Hinata squawked, offended, but Tsukishima smacked him upside the head.

“That’s a good thing you idiot. It means it wasn’t you.” Tsukishima scowled.

“So we still don’t have a clue on who did it, unless Lev is lying.” Shimizu frowned.

“I’m not lying!” Lev whined. Kindaichi thought carefully, trying to remember anything useful. There had to be something missing…

_“That’s a whole lot of cookies. Jesus Christ, how did someone even make this many!?” Inuoka whistled. Kindaichi peeked in and his mouth dropped. There was at least three other batches in the garbage._

_“Maybe someone is a stress baker. Yahaba-san made all those cupcakes before our practice match with Karasuno.” Kunimi recalled._

Kindaichi’s eyes widened and he made a sound of realization, inadvertently earning all the attention on himself.

“How many batches were made again? It was a lot, right?” Kindaichi began, trying not to feel pressured. Yamaguchi blinked before tapping the screen in front of him, pulling up a picture of the trash can with all the burnt cookies in it.

“Damn, how does someone even make this many cookies!? PLUS one successful batch!” Futakuchi’s eyes were wide. It was really an obscene amount of cookies.

“Because someone is a stress baker. Our senpai made four hundred cookies before a practice match one time.” Kunimi explained.

“And after the motive yesterday, everyone was under a lot of pressure and stress. Even more so than before a game.” Tsukishima added, a small smirk growing on his face. Kindaichi had a feeling he realized the same thing Kindaichi had.

“I remember back on day one, we were asking everyone who knew how to cook.” Kindaichi continued slowly.

_“Goshiki, put your hand down. They’re talking about cooking, not baking. Especially not stress-baking.” Shirabu scowled. Goshiki slowly lowered his hand, blinking._

_“_ Shirabu said Goshiki was a stress baker.” Kunimi’s eyes widened as everyone looked towards the Shiratorizawa teen. Goshiki went pale.

“W-What?! N-No I’m not…I-I just…like sweets.” He protested. It was obvious he was lying though.

“This is ridiculous. You honestly think _Goshiki_ killed someone? Goshiki wouldn’t hurt anyone, let alone KILL. Is this another way to try and beat us in the stupid rivalry our senpais made?” Shirabu scowled. Goshiki looked at him, surprised.

“You were the one who said Goshiki baked, specifically stress-baked. Not to mention, he heard his precious senpai, Ushijima screaming in pain for a motive. Surely someone as devoted to his ace as Goshiki would want to make sure he was okay. Not to mention he fits in Lev’s height description of ‘not Hinata-level short’ but also not ‘Lev-level tall’.” Tsukishima pointed out. Goshiki was gripping the front of his stand tightly.

“There could easily be someone else who stress-bakes! Goshiki wasn’t the only one who was stressed out. Also did you forget Lev could be lying?” Shirabu continued to argue.

“S-Shirabu-senpai! Please stop!” Goshiki finally shouted. The room went silent as Shirabu looked at Goshiki in shock.

“I-It’s true…” Goshiki whimpered, his knuckles white from his tight grip. He wasn’t looking up at any of them.

“I made the cookies that killed Shibayama-san.”

 

 


	9. Chapter 9- End of Chapter

“I made the cookies that killed Shibayama-san.” The room was silent as Goshiki’s confession hit them.

“W-Wait, you’re just admitting it? Just like that?” Kageyama asked, eyes wide. Goshiki bit his lip and Kindaichi realized he was trembling.

“I-I did make the cookies. I was just… really really stressed out. So I baked. I made sure to leave by 9 so I wouldn’t get locked in the kitchen overnight. B-But the cookies were still cooling so I just left them. How was I supposed to know Shibayama would EAT one? O-Or that someone switched the sugar and poison!?” Goshiki had his fists clenched in his hair.

“Wait, wait, wait. So you admit you baked the cookies that killed Shibayama, but you’re also saying you didn’t intentionally put poison in them?” Futakuchi frowned. Goshiki nodded.

“I didn’t want to kill anyone! I-I just wanted to bake cookies.” Goshiki insisted. Kunimi let out a frustrated huff.

“Great. So either someone used Goshiki to kill Shibayama and we have to try to figure out who with little to no information, or Goshiki is lying and he’s behind it all.” He groaned.

“I don’t think we have to figure that out, actually.” Tsukishima spoke up. Everyone turned to him, confused.

“It doesn’t really matter who switched the poison and the sugar. That wouldn’t have killed anyone on its own. As far as I know, nobody eats sugar by itself and nothing we’ve eaten so far had sugar added in it. What killed Shibayama was the cookies that had the poison baked into them. Which means Goshiki-san, who made the cookies, is the killer in the end.” Tsukishima explained.

“W-What!?” Goshiki looked at everyone, eyes wide. Shirabu was staying silent.

“I don’t want to believe that any of us killed Shibayama, but it appears that Tsukishima-san is right.” Shimizu refused to look at Goshiki, instead staring down at the screen on her stand.

“ _Does this mean you kiddos are ready to vote?”_ Monokuma spoke up for the first time since they began, earning their attention.

“Vote? What do you mean, vote?” Yachi asked, confused. Their screens suddenly lit up and their pixels greeted them once more.

“ _All you have to do is tap whoever you think the killer is! Majority rules, since killers tend not to vote for themselves.”_ Monokuma explained. Kindaichi hesitated, but some of the others almost immediately tapped their screen. He took a deep breath before tapping Goshiki’s pixel. There was a short loading screen as their votes were all submitted.

“ _Well, well, looks like you kids are pretty fun after all! And smart too! Since you’re absolutely correct! The blackened killer behind Shibayama’s death is Goshiki Tsutomu!”_ The bear sounded more excited than the rest of them.

“W-What!? B-But I didn’t-“

“Goshiki. That’s enough.” Goshiki was interrupted by Shirabu, who was glaring at him.

“S-Shirabu-senpai?” He said quietly, eyes wide.

“It doesn’t matter anymore, Goshiki. It’s not like we can rewind time, no matter how much you protest.” Shirabu scowled. Goshiki blinked.

“Wait, Shirabu-senpai, you…did you vote for me?” Oh god his voice cracked. Kindaichi winced as Shirabu looked away, Goshiki’s eyes starting to tear up.

“It doesn’t matter if I did or didn’t, since majority rules anyways.” Shirabu mumbled.

“It was unanimous, aside from Goshiki.” Kunimi was looking down at the voting screen. Kindaichi looked down as well and saw the results were posted. 14 votes for Goshiki.

“That’s… kind of harsh.” Futakuchi frowned.

“Why does it matter?! It’s just based off of facts! Fact is that Goshiki killed Shibayama, intentionally or unintentionally!” Shirabu argued back.

“ _Ahhh, nothing like the despair that comes from utter betrayal.”_ Monokuma sighed happily, earning glares from several of them.

“W-Wait. I-If we voted right, t-then that means… G-Goshiki-san is going to get punished, right?” Yachi suddenly said. Shirabu’s eyes widened, no doubt having also forgotten that.

“ _Ding dong! Glad someone here pays attention to my rules. Which means it’s time for my favorite part!”_ Monokuma pulled out a gavel, looking excited.

 _Oh god. If the sadistic bear is excited, this can’t be good._ Kindaichi was doing his best to not look at Goshiki, afraid of what could possibly happen.

“ _Iiiiiiiit’s punishment time!_ ” The bear slammed down the red button in front of him and for a moment there was silent. A strange whirring noise broke the silence, everyone looking around in confusion. Suddenly, a chain fell down from the ceiling with a collar attached, a collar quickly latching onto Goshiki’s neck. The boy yelped as he was pulled up into the air, quickly pulled out of view.

“Goshiki!’ Shirabu tried to grab him, but was too slow.

“Hey, the screen’s changing again!” Hinata suddenly shouted. They all turned their attention to the screen in front of them. Goshiki was now standing on a volleyball court all by himself. The collar was still around his neck, the chain attached to the floor behind him but from the way it was lying on the ground there was a decent amount of slack.

“I think there’s something wrapped around his wrists.” Yamaguchi squinted at the screen. Kindaichi looked closer and there was definitely some sort of string around his arms and legs. Suddenly, a volleyball was tossed in the air. Goshiki looked surprised as his body moved on its own, getting pulled up and spiking the ball into the court. It was barely outside the line and the chain shortened slightly. Goshiki seemed to realize this as well, since his accuracy got better immediately. But soon more and more balls were tossed, at extreme paces. Goshiki was flung around the court, forced to spike the balls and for every one he missed, the chain shortened again.

“T-This is really messed up.” Koganegawa said what they were all thinking. Kindaichi had a feeling this was going to end terribly. Goshiki was definitely in pain, the chain attached to his neck barely long enough to give him the ability to jump. Finally, it happened. Goshiki missed a toss. He stood on the gym floor, panting. The volleyballs just stopped coming. Suddenly, the court floor folded outwards, sending Goshiki falling downwards. But the chain didn’t extend. Kindaichi flinched as Goshiki’s body suddenly stopped falling, still dangling in the air. The room was silent as the screen faded to black.

“W-What the fuck was that?” Futakuchi was the first to speak.

“ _Ahhh nothing like a good punishment to get the blood moving. You guys seem pretty bummed out though. Surely seeing Shibayama get avenged felt pretty good.”_ Monokuma seemed happy with the results.

“Yuuki wouldn’t have wanted that. NONE of us wanted that!” Inuoka practically growled. Kindaichi wasn’t used to seeing anger on the usually carefree boy’s face. Even Lev and Hinata seemed upset, and those two were usually all smiles.

“ _But you guys did want that. After all, you all voted for him. Even his precious senpai.”_ Shirabu flinched at that, not looking up at any of them.

“That is enough. We didn’t have a choice in voting, since if we didn’t we would all have had the same fate. There’s no point listening to Monokuma’s attempts to instigate more deaths between us.” Shimizu sounded calm, but Kindaichi was pretty sure she was shaken up as well.

“Let’s go. I’m tired of the bear’s voice.” Tsukishima turned, walking towards the elevator.

“Wait, that’s it?” Shirabu suddenly said. Tsukishima paused, glancing at him.

“You convince us to vote for him, send him off to death, and now it’s just ‘let’s go’?” Shirabu growled, stalking up to him. Tsukishima stared down at Shirabu, eyebrow raised.

“I’m sorry, I was unaware you wanted to make a suicide pact involving all of us by letting him live. What happened, happened. You said it yourself, we can’t rewind time.” Shirabu tightened his fist, but before he could do anything, Aone got in between them, pushing them apart.

“That is enough.” The large teen said firmly. Shirabu scowled and pulled away before storming off towards the elevator.

“Tsukki…He did just lose a friend.” Yamaguchi said softly. Tsukishima rolled his eyes.

“And he’s not the only one.” Tsukishima continued towards the elevator, Yamaguchi behind him. Kindaichi glanced at Inuoka, who was still upset. Lev wrapped an arm around him and led him towards the elevator.

“Let’s go back, Kindaichi.” Kunimi spoke up, looking up at him, worried. Kindaichi nodded.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”


	10. Chapter 2- School Life P1

Breakfast the next day was…surprisingly normal. Kindaichi was expecting a lot of awkward silence and more tension, but most of the teens were talking amongst each other when he and Kunimi arrived.

“Good morning, Kindaichi-san, Kunimi-san.” Shimizu nodded in greeting to both of them as they walked by towards the kitchen. There was eggs and bacon made today, Koganegawa offering to make personal order for eggs. When the two walked back out of the kitchen, they were greeted with shouts.

“Oi! Hinata! That was mine!” Kageyama was reaching around Hinata, who had taken a piece of bacon off his plate.

“Nu-uh! Back off Bakeyama!” While they were arguing, Yamaguchi snuck a piece off of both of their plates, eating it quickly before they could notice.

“Do you two really have to be this loud in the morning?” Tsukishima groaned as Hinata fell back into him, roughly shoving him back the other way.

“It’s actually kind of nice. Sort of makes it feel like everything’s okay now?” Futakuchi chuckled. Aone nodded and Kindaichi swore he saw a bit of a smile.

“Oh yeah, everything is okay. Two people are dead but no, it’s all sunshine and smiles.” Shirabu muttered. Kindaichi stared awkwardly down at his food.

“It’s not like we forgot they died, Shirabu-san. I didn’t really know Goshiki-san but I know Shibayama wouldn’t have wanted us to mope around forever.” Lev pointed out.

“Wow that was actually smart. Who are you and what have you done with Lev?” Inuoka teased. Lev pouted and smacked his teammate in the arm. The mood was lifted once more. Kindaichi noticed Shirabu scowl and get up, silently storming out of the dining room.

“He never really acted like he was that close to Goshiki, but I guess they must’ve been friends.” Kunimi said quietly. Kindaichi nodded, going back to eating.

“We should make sure someone checks on him later though.” Kindaichi suggested in between bites.

“S-So I was checking on my phone, and the map got changed overnight. It looks like there’s another exhibit opened.” Yachi suddenly said. Everyone blinked before pulling out their phones as well. Sure enough, there was another exhibit attached to the lobby.

“We should go exploring again! Maybe we’ll find an exit this time!” Hinata was already practically bouncing in his seat.

“Doubtful. If there wasn’t an exit in the first exhibit, why would there be one in the second.” Tsukishima pointed out. Hinata pouted.

“I dunno! Weird planning?” He shrugged.

“Hinata is right about one thing. We should definitely check out the newest exhibit.” Yamaguchi said.

“I wonder what kind of exhibit it is. Hopefully one a little less…scary.” Koganegawa shuddered. Kindaichi definitely agreed with that. He was done with the Horror Exhibit.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Futakuchi stood up, grabbing his plate. Others soon followed his example, eager to explore the new exhibit. The dishes had never been finished so quickly. Kindaichi was practically dragging Kunimi along, the other boy not as excited as the rest.

“It’s just another room. We’re not going anywhere, it’ll still be there whenever.” Kunimi protested as he was pulled along.

“But what if there’s something cool in there? Like… I dunno Sci-Fi stuff? Or Dinosaurs! Or like, an exit?” Kindaichi pointed out. Kunimi huffed but sped up slightly. Sure enough, when they reached the lobby one of the sets of bars blocking off the various hallways had risen, opening up another exhibit.

“Movie Exhibit. That sounds… kind of cool actually.” Kunimi admitted as he read the sign.

“Already a lot better than the other one.” Kindaichi let out a sigh of relief as the two walked into the exhibit. The first room was larger than the main room of the Horror Exhibit, with various smaller exhibits around the room. Lev was helping Hinata up onto a fishing boat (probably from some intense movie involving storms and shipwrecks), no doubt to explore. There was a decently-sized Godzilla monster on top of a small city that was roped off, something Kindaichi knew his senpai would love.

“This is so cool!” Koganegawa was running around, apparently unable to focus on just one of the exhibits.

“Oh wow look at the superheroes!” Kindaichi pulled Kunimi to one of the corners, where statues of superheroes from comic books were standing. Kindaichi was 90% sure Hawkeye had real arrows in his quiver.

“You nerd.” Kunimi teased, nudging Kindaichi with his elbow.

“Dude. Superheroes are amazing and you know it.” Kindaichi wasn’t bothered by his friend’s teasing, too in awe with the realistic hero costumes.

“OH MY GOD THERE’S A GYM!” Almost immediately, every head turned towards Inuoka, who had opened the large double doors near the back of the room. There was chaos as everyone scrambled towards him, pushing past one another to get into the gym. Sure enough, a decently-sized high school gym was attached to the main Exhibit.

“It’s probably for all those sports movies nowadays.” Yamaguchi realized. Kindaichi glanced around, before grinning as he found what he was looking for. He made his way to a side closet and pulled it open.

“Oh hell yes.” He was more than happy to see familiar-looking posts and a net in the closet.

“Is that a net?!” Kindaichi jumped, not expecting Lev to be right behind him. At the sound of ‘net’, everyone began to cheer. Lev grabbed one of the posts, carrying it out to the gym. Aone came over to grab the other, easily lifting it.

“Can we play!? Please can we play!?” Hinata was bouncing in excitement.

“Well we have at least two setters, not to mention since none of you are liberos, there would be no real disadvantage other than perhaps height for blocking.” Shimizu pulled out the scoreboard, setting it in the center.

“Wow, Shimizu-san knows a lot about us.” Kunimi mumbled.

“She’s a manager. It’s kind of her job.” Kindaichi reminded him. Kunimi nodded before biting his lip.

“...Kindaichi what team are we going to join?” He asked, eyes flickering between the two setters.

“Koganegawa is still learning how to set properly. But Kageyama is…well…” Kindaichi trailed off, realizing the problem.

“Shirabu probably won’t play if we ask. And even then, Oikawa-san would actually kill us if we played with him or Kageyama. So I guess we’re joining Datekou.” Kunimi and Kindaichi made their way to that side, joining Futakuchi, Aone, and Koganegawa. On the other side of the net was Kageyama, Hinata, Yamaguchi, Lev, Inuoka and a reluctant Tsukishima. Yachi grabbed a volleyball out from the supply closet and tossed it to Yamaguchi.

“Alright, let’s play!”


	11. Chapter 2- School Life P2

There were rules in place for using the gym. If music played, it had to be a mutual agreement between everyone in the gym ( _No more High School Musical, Lev)_. No hogging the gym ( _Looking at you, Kageyama and Hinata_ ). Make sure you clean up when you’re done and no staying in the gym past Night Time ( _KAGEYAMA AND HINATA)_. It was easy enough to follow, even if there were some disagreements. Of course they had a system to make sure the rules were followed. For example, every night someone had to go check the gym to make sure nobody was still practicing there late at night. Tonight, it was Kindaichi’s turn. He had barely entered the Movie Exhibit when he heard shouting from the gym.

“Fine! Go ask him for a toss then!” Kindaichi quickly scooted out of the way as Kageyama stormed past. He blinked in confusion before peeking into the gym. Hinata was standing next to the ball cart, panting and tightly gripping the volleyball in his hand.

“What’d you do to piss him off this time? Did you serve another ball to the back of his head?” Kindaichi asked, leaning against the doorway. Hinata scowled as he threw the ball towards the cart, surprisingly making the shot.

“Bakeyama is mad because I mentioned how it’d be cool to get a toss from Shirabu-san, since he always tosses to Ushijima and he’s the number three ace, so Shirabu-san HAS to be a good setter.” Hinata grumbled, folding his arms. Kindaichi blinked.

“Is…he jealous?” Kindaichi was hesitant to ask. Hinata looked surprised.

“Why would he be jealous? He doesn’t care if Suga-san or Kenma tosses to me!” He pouted. Kindaichi rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well, it’s probably different for teammates. Plus Kageyama is competitive. At least he was with Oikawa-san. Shirabu-san is from Shiratorizawa, so he might see him as competition.” Kindaichi was kind of rambling. But Hinata seemed to understand.

“He’s just being stupid. I’ll yell at him tomorrow. It’s not Night Time yet, right?” Hinata asked. Kindaichi glanced at his phone. It was only 9:30.

“Nope. Half an hour left.” Hinata brightened.

“I can get ice cream before bed!” He ran out, leaving Kindaichi alone in the very-much-not-cleaned-up gym. He let out a huff before he started to untie the net from the posts.

“We have like, 4 rules. And he ignores them all.” He grumbled as he lifted one of the posts.

“I thought we were supposed to be out of the gym by 10.” Kindaichi yelped as Kunimi appeared out of nowhere, standing in the doorway of the gym.

“Don’t scare me like that!” Kindaichi pouted as he set the post in the supply closet. Kunimi sighed as he began to gather up the net.

“Did the two idiots forget to clean up again?” He asked, although the answer was already obvious.

“They got in some sort of argument beforehand. We can just make sure they mop tomorrow morning.” Kindaichi grabbed the other post. It was a lot easier to clean up the gym with more than two people, but it was better than doing it by himself.

“New rule. If you don’t clean up, you don’t get to practice.” Kunimi grumbled as he held the door open for Kindaichi.

“We can mention it to everyone tomorrow.” Kindaichi grunted as he set down the post, making sure to shut the supply closet door behind him.

“ _Ding-Dong! It’s now 10 PM! The kitchen is now closed!”_ The intercom crackled off once more. Kindaichi yawned as the two left the gym.

“We’re not in charge of breakfast tomorrow, right?” He asked as they walked towards the dorms.

“Nah. Aone-san and Futakuchi-san are. I think they’re going to make pancakes.” Kunimi hummed. Kindaichi let out a happy sigh. Aone made godly pancakes.

“I can’t wait.”

 

 

Apparently his body couldn’t wait either, since he fell asleep almost immediately after landing on his bed. He woke up with a groan at the morning announcement. The bear was an amazing alarm clock, unfortunately, and as soon as the intercom crackled off, he couldn’t fall back asleep. His phone buzzed and he reached for it, yawning.

“Don’t forget about pancakes –Kunimi” He read. That woke him up real quick. He had never gotten dressed that quickly. He was kind of surprised Kunimi was awake before him, but pancakes could perform all sorts of miracles. He actually ran into the sleepy boy as he was rushing out of his room.

“Oh! Shit! Sorry Kunimi.” Kindaichi quickly helped him up, feeling bad.

“You really want pancakes.” Kunimi mumbled, yawning. Kindaichi’s cheeks flushed red.

“A-Aone-san is a good cook!” He protested. Kunimi chuckled as they began making their way to the kitchen. To their surprise, there seemed to be a very intense (yet one-sided) conversation in the dining room.

“I-I dunno! We already put a jacket on him and he’s still so damn cold! Should I get another blanket?” Futakuchi was asking, sounding concerned. Kindaichi and Kunimi exchanged confused looks before walking into the dining room.

“What’s the problem?” Kindaichi asked. Aone was sitting near the end of the dining room, a bundle of blankets lying on the table. Futakuchi was pacing back and forth, only stopping when the two entered.

“W-We were coming down to make breakfast and Aone went into the freezer to get something a-and…he was just…” Futakuchi’s eyes flickered towards the blanketed bundle.

“Who? What?” Kindaichi was still confused as he approached the end of the table. Aone was watching him very carefully, and it was making him uncomfortable. He finally saw a head of bright orange hair peeking out from the blankets and his eyes widened.

“ _Ding-Dong! A Body has been discovered! After a short investigation period, we’ll have a class trial!”_ The four of them jumped as the intercom went off.

“W-What!? He’s actually…?” Futakuchi looked as pale as Hinata and Aone forced him to sit down. Aone himself looked upset instead of his usual neutral face.

“Someone…actually killed Hinata?”

 


	12. Chapter 2- Investigation

“Jesus Christ.” Futakuchi fell back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. Aone was tightly gripping the edge of the table, eyes still wide. Kindaichi couldn’t believe it. Hinata was kind of annoying, sure, but he didn’t deserve to be killed!

“What do we do…?” Kunimi asked, looking away from the still-bundled-up body.

“H-How do we tell them all? He’s friends with pretty much everyone.” Futakuchi’s eyes flickered towards Aone, who still seemed to be in shock.

“Well we better do something quick because here they all come.” Kindaichi looked down the hall and sure enough, the others were making their way towards the dining room.

“Hey hey, did you hear the announcement? Is it true? Did someone else die?” Lev asked, eyes wide. Kindaichi glanced back at Hinata, noting that Futakuchi had covered up his head once more, probably to give them time to gently give everyone the news.

“Y-Yes but…” Kindaichi trailed off, sending Kunimi a pleading look. He had no idea what to say in this situation.

“It’s Hinata.” Okay maybe asking Kunimi for help was a terrible idea. Kindaichi forgot how blunt he was. Everyone stared at him in shock.

“Haha very funny. We’re serious though, who died?” Tsukishima scowled.

“We’re serious too! Go look for yourself!” Kindaichi pointed to the bundle of blankets at the end of the table. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi exchanged looks before Tsukishima made his way to the end of the table, undoing the blankets enough to sneak a peek. He immediately dropped the blankets with wide eyes.

“Holy shit.” That was all the proof they needed.  Yachi began crying and Shimizu held her close. Lev and Inuoka both looked shocked and Yamaguchi hurried over to the body, unwrapping it like he couldn’t believe it either.

“How could anyone do this!?” Yamaguchi asked, eyes widening. He stumbled backwards and Tsukishima caught him.

“Careful, Yamaguchi.” He led the freckled teen to a chair and sat him down.

“Where’s Kageyama and Shirabu-san?” Kunimi asked, looking around the group.

“Shirabu-san won’t eat breakfast with us anymore, remember? And Kageyama-san might be sleeping still.” Inuoka finally spoke, though his eyes were still trained on the body.

“Someone should go check on them, just in case. Don’t tell Kageyama it’s Hinata yet.” Kindaichi blinked in confusion as Yamaguchi hurried out of the cafeteria.

“Just in case of what?” He asked, frowning.

“Just in case they’re dead too.” Tsukishima explained. Yachi let out a whimper and Shimizu pulled her closer.

“I think that those of us who were close to Hinata should focus on investigating anywhere but here. His body might distract you.” Futakuchi suggested, a long pause before ‘body’. Inuoka pulled a teary-eyed Lev out of the room, gripping his hand tightly. Kindaichi felt bad for the Nekoma teens, having lost two dear friends so quickly.

“Tsukishima-san, we’re leaving this matter to you.” Shimizu nodded at him before maneuvering Yachi out of the room as well. Soon the room was cleared of everyone except Tsukishima, Futakuchi, Koganegawa, Kunimi, himself and surprisingly Aone. Futakuchi had tried to get him to leave but the tall teen just glared at him and resumed standing by the body.

“ _Wowie, this place cleared out fast!”_ Kindaichi jumped in shock as Monokuma popped out from under the table. He was holding another file, which he handed to Tsukishima.

“ _Enjoy the Monokuma File, kiddos! This is either going to be easy peasy for you, or the hardest one yet!”_ Monokuma laughed before vanishing. Kindaichi would be more than happy if the bear never showed up again.

“Victim: Hinata Shouyou, Cause of Death: Hypothermia. Time of Death: 12:00 AM. No other wounds” Tsukishima read aloud before loudly shutting the file.

“Aone-san and I will guard the body while you guys investigate. We found him in the freezer so that might be a good place to start.” Futakuchi crossed his arms as he sat down at the table. Kindaichi glanced at the others before following Tsukishima towards the kitchen and the freezer.

“It’s one of those big walk-in ones, right?” Kunimi asked as Tsukishima pulled open the door.

“Yeah! It’s big enough to store lots of food, as well as ice cream!” Koganegawa explained. Kindaichi’s eyes widened.

“Oh, Hinata wanted ice cream before bed last night. That must’ve been why he went into the freezer so late.” He recalled. Tsukishima glanced at him, one eyebrow raised.

“Why were you with Hinata last night? I thought you hated Karasuno.” Kindaichi blinked, confused.

“What? We’re rivals, that doesn’t mean I hate all of you. I wasn’t even with him very long, he was just finishing up practicing with Kageyama. I was supposed to make sure the gym was empty last night and I found them arguing. Kageyama stormed out and Hinata was really upset. He left soon after and I had to clean up after them.” Kindaichi frowned, still slightly annoyed. Before Tsukishima could ask any more questions, a loud whirring sound caused them to jump. Kindaichi looked up and noticed two fans suddenly turned on, causing the freezer to get even colder.

“Oh so this turned on the fans.” The fans turned off and Kunimi popped his head into the doorway.

“There’s a dial out here next to the switches. I think it’s a timer? I dunno.” Kindaichi exited the freezer, examining the dial Kunimi had found.

“I think you can manually enter how long the fans should be on. I don’t see why the freezer would need to be less cold though.” Kindaichi shrugged.

“So the killer could have timed the fans to turn on after Night Time started, so they’d be safely away and maybe getting an alibi, right?” Koganegawa suggested.

“Why didn’t Hinata just leave the freezer though? Does the freezer lock or something?” Kunimi asked. Kindaichi examined the door.

“There’s a keyhole, but I don’t know where the key is.” He took out his phone, taking a quick picture.

“We should probably ask Futakuchi or Aone, considering they were the first ones to the kitchen.” Tsukishima walked out of the freezer, Koganegawa on his heels. The four were about to leave the kitchen when they heard a thud noise. They turned around and KIndaichi’s eyes widened. One of the lower cupboards had opened and Kageyama had fallen out with a grunt. He sat up, rubbing his head and yawning.

“K-Kageyama?” Kindaichi managed to sputter out. Kageyama blinked before turning to them, realizing he wasn’t in bed.

“Why am I in the kitchen?” He stood up, wincing as his bones creaked, probably from being in such an awkward position for a long time.

“That’s a great question.” Tsukishima folded his arms.

“ _Ding-Dong! Investigation Time is over! It’s time for our Class Trial! Head to the elevator in the lobby. Remember, Class Trials are MANDATORY.”_ Kageyama looked even more confused.

“W-Wait, trial? Investigation? Doesn’t that mean somebody died?” Kindaichi glanced at Kunimi, not sure what to say.

“It was Hinata. He was found locked in the freezer this morning by Aone-senpai and Futakuchi-senpai.” Koganegawa explained. Kageyama’s face was blank.

“You can believe it or not, but we have to get going.” Tsukishima turned, walking out of the kitchen, Koganegawa right behind him, unaware of the emotional bomb he had just dropped onto Kageyama.

“Come on, Kindaichi. We have to go.” Kunimi said softly. Kindaichi took one more look at Kageyama before turning and heading towards the lobby. He was pretty sure Kageyama was following them silently, still shocked. Soon the group was gathered in the lobby.

“Ah! Kageyama! There you are! W-we tried to knock at your door but you didn’t answer.” Yachi seemed a little relieved to see Kageyama, her eyes still red from crying.

“Where were you?” Shimizu asked, frowning slightly. Kageyama opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by shouting.

“I said I didn’t want to go!”

“ _And I said Class Trials are MANDATORY!”_ It was somewhat amusing to see Shirabu being dragged along by a small stuffed bear, but also terrifying that the stuffed bear was strong enough to pull the setter along. He all but threw Shirabu into the group with a huff.

“ _Alrighty now that we’re all here, head into the elevator and we can get started!”_ The bear didn’t vanish like usual, probably to make sure Shirabu didn’t try to run again. The group slowly moved into the elevator, the doors closing behind them. Kindaichi glanced at Kageyama, who still seemed pretty confused. It was suspicious that he was hiding in the kitchen, but he also seemed genuinely confused to how he got there.

“Hey. Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out.” Kunimi nudged Kindaichi, pretty much reading his thoughts.

“I know. We have to figure it out.”


	13. Chapter 2- Class Trial P1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh sorry this took so long! Life hit me like a train and I couldn't write for a while  
> aaaaand i've been lowkey obsessed with Persona since the new game came out so it was hard to switch gears back to Dangan Ronpa  
> BUT HERE WE GO let's find out who killed the little sunshine child

Kindaichi hated the trial room before, but it was even worse with the two new stands in place. Kageyama couldn’t even look up at Hinata’s stand.

“ _Alrighty, it’s time to discuss who killed Hinata Shouyou! Will you be correct? Or oh-so wrong? Let the trial begin!”_ Monokuma was still as sadistically happy and annoying as ever. There was a long silence, as nobody really wanted to start the discussion.

“So what exactly happened?” Shirabu finally asked, breaking the silence.

“Aone-san and Futakuchi-san found Hinata in the freezer this morning. The Monokuma File says he died at 12:00 AM, so he must’ve been locked in overnight.” Kindaichi explained, pulling up the file.

“Hypothermia… that’s when you freeze to death, right? That’s why you have to be careful while skiing in case of an avalanche.” Koganegawa seemed proud of himself for knowing the definition.

“So someone locked Hinata in the freezer? Does the door even lock?” Inuoka asked, looking confused.

“There’s a key for it. We leave it on a hook by the door for whoever is making breakfast in the morning. Aone, do you still have it?” Futakuchi asked. Aone nodded, pulling the key out of his pocket.

“And it was there when you got there this morning, right?” Shimizu asked. Aone nodded.

“I forgot to put it back.” He admitted.

“Considering the circumstances, I believe we can forgive you for that this time. Now, I have a question. Why was Hinata in the freezer in the first place?” Shimizu continued.

“M-Maybe the culprit forced him in! He’s pretty small s-so it wouldn’t be hard.” Yachi pointed out, eyes tearing up.

“Kindaichi, didn’t you say he wanted ice cream?” Kunimi glanced at him. Kindaichi blinked before remembering the night before.

“Oh yeah! He and Kageyama had a fight in the gym and Kageyama stormed off. Soon after, Hinata asked what time it was and since it wasn’t Nighttime yet, he went to get ice cream before bed. So he must’ve been locked in while getting ice cream.” Kindaichi explained.

“Of course he was. But how did the key end up outside for Aone to find if Hinata had it to unlock the freezer to get ice cream?” Tsukishima asked, frowning a bit.

“Well, maybe someone else met him at the freezer and he gave the key to them while he got his ice cream? Then they could lock him in and still have the key outside.” Yamaguchi suggested. Tsukishima seemed somewhat impressed.

“That would makes sense. He trusts pretty much everyone here, so he’d do that with anybody really.” Tsukishima mused.

“So Hinata went in the freezer right before Nighttime, got locked in, and died two hours later? Doesn’t it take a while to freeze to death?” Lev asked.

“There were those switches outside. They messed with the fans, right?” Kunimi recalled.

“Yeah, and they had a timer. So they could be set to activate after Nighttime started, giving the culprit time to get away so they didn’t get locked in the kitchen, which would definitely make it obvious they were the culprit.” Kindaichi added.

“…Hey, Kageyama. Where did you disappear to after your fight with Hinata? Nobody could find you, right?” Shirabu asked. Kageyama blinked.

“I…I was heading back to my room. The next thing I knew, I was in the kitchen. Kindaichi and Tsukishima were there, and then the announcement saying Investigation Time was over came on.” Kageyama frowned, trying to think.

“How did you end up in the kitchen without us noticing? Aone and I were there exactly when it got unlocked.” Futakuchi blinked, confused.

“It looked like he had fallen out of a cupboard when we found him.” Kindaichi recalled.

“So after a fight with Hinata, Kageyama storms off, and then after investigating Hinata’s death, you find him hiding in a cupboard?” Shirabu asked. Kindaichi glances at Tsukishima before nodding.

“That sounds about right.” His eyes widen when he realizes what Shirabu was hinting at.

“W-Wait! A-are you suggesting Kageyama killed Hinata?” Yachi asked, eyes wide. Shirabu shrugged, though he was staring directly at Kageyama.

“We just said how the culprit could’ve been stupid enough to end up locked in the kitchen themselves, right?” He reminded them.

“W-What? I didn’t kill Hinata!” Kageyama sputtered.

“I-It is kind of suspicious that you were found hiding at the crime scene though.” Lev pointed out.

“I already said, I don’t know how I got there!” Kageyama insisted. Kindaichi thought back to when they discovered Kageyama.

_The four were about to leave the kitchen when they heard a thud noise. They turned around and Kindaichi’s eyes widened. One of the lower cupboards had opened and Kageyama had fallen out with a grunt. He sat up, rubbing his head and yawning._

_“K-Kageyama?” Kindaichi managed to sputter out. Kageyama blinked before turning to them, realizing he wasn’t in bed._

_“Why am I in the kitchen?” He stood up, wincing as his bones creaked, probably from being in such an awkward position for a long time._

“Wait. I think Kageyama was in that cupboard for a really long time. Not to mention he had just woken up when we got there, and that was after the Investigation ended. I don’t know if he’s changed, but back in middle school he couldn’t sleep in on weekends.” Kindaichi recalled.

“Kageyama is always staying up the latest at training camp and up decently early. He only sleeps on the bus if the games have been really exhausting.” Yamaguchi frowns, thinking carefully.

“Not to mention, I was pretty loud when I was getting out the dishes for breakfast. So he definitely should’ve woken up then.” Futakuchi added.

“W-What if… he was drugged? Then it’d be easy for him to be passed out that long and not wake up to loud noises.” Koganegawa pointed out.

“Drugged? Really? Where would anyone even get the drugs to do it?” Shirabu scowled.

“The Horror Exhibit might’ve had some. After all, some of those killers had been doctors.” Kunimi suggested.

“So the reason nobody could find Kageyama was because he was in the cupboard?” Shimizu confirmed. Kindaichi nodded.

“So we’re back to square one on who killed Hinata. We got the how and the when, but we still need the who.” Inuoka sighed.

“U-Um, I have a question.” Yachi suddenly spoke up. She shifted nervously as the group all turned to her.

“Are you confused about something? We can repeat it if you need us to.” Shimizu said softly. Yachi bit her lip.

“W-Well I’m just a little confused. Shirabu-san was in his room the whole time, right? Monokuma even had to drag him out here. B-But how did he know we couldn’t find Kageyama?”


	14. Chapter 2- End of Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i HAD THIS UPLOADED FOREVER AGO AND ONLY JUST FOUND OUT IT WAS ARCHIVED INSTEAD AKUJDHESKJHFSAK  
> so uh i guess here's an update while i go searching for my outline for the rest of the fic?  
> ._. sorry guys

_“W-Well I’m just a little confused. Shirabu-san was in his room the whole time, right? Monokuma had to drag him out here. B-But how did he know we couldn’t find Kageyama?”_

“That’s an excellent question, Yachi.” Tsukishima broke the silence first, raising an eyebrow as he stared at Shirabu. The teen didn’t seemed fazed at all.

“I heard you guys ask him where he was before we went in the elevator. It’s not that hard to assume he was missing beforehand.” Shirabu explained. Kindaichi blinked in confusion.

“But you were the last one to show up. How did you even hear that?” He asked. Shirabu simply rolled his eyes.

“Have you heard Yachi-san’s voice? It’d be impossible not to hear her screeching from down the hall.” It was actually terrifying to see all of Karasuno (even Yamaguchi) glare at Shirabu. Kindaichi was pretty sure Shimizu was about to take him out herself.

“Okay moving on quickly. While Shirabu-san is right that Kageyama has no alibi, weren’t most of us either together or in our rooms by the time Night Time started? I know Kunimi and I were in the gym cleaning up. Which means a lot of us, including Shirabu, don’t really have an alibi, unless you were sharing rooms. Raise your hands if you were sharing rooms with someone.” Kindaichi suggested. The Datekou teens raised their hands, as did Lev, Inuoka, Shimizu and Yachi.

“So that leaves Yamaguchi, Tsukishima, Shirabu and Kageyama with no alibi. And out of those four, I guess Kageyama is the only one with any real motive, since he had a fight with Hinata right before he was locked in the freezer.” Kunimi frowned. Kindaichi could see the logic, but there was also something missing. It didn’t sound right.

“K-Kageyama and Hinata fight all the time though! They wouldn’t really kill each other over one!” Yachi pointed out.

“What did they even fight about anyways?” Tsukishima asked. Kageyama’s cheeks went pink and he looked away.

“I only really heard from Hinata what happened, but it sounds like he wanted to try to get Shirabu-san to set for him and Kageyama didn’t like it.” Kindaichi recalled. Kageyama scowled as the others gave him curious looks. Tsukishima snorted.

“He did the exact same thing when he found out Hinata was practicing with Akaashi-san. If I recall, he acted strange around Kenma-san the first time too. Honestly the only setter he’s fine with it Sugawara.” Tsukishima snickered. Kageyama glared at him, cheeks full-on red.

“S-Shut it!” He grumbled. Kindaichi blinked, confused.

 _Wait why was Kageyama jealo- oh._ His eyes widened with realization.

“Oh. Kageyama. You really liked Hinata.” He realized. Kageyama sputtered a bit before looking down at his feet.

“Wait. If Kageyama liked Hinata in that way, why would he kill him?” Lev asked, cocking his head to the side.

“He didn’t.” Kunimi suddenly said. Kindaichi looked at him, eyes wide.

“Something was bothering me. We said Hinata probably tossed the key to the killer while in the freezer, right? Which probably means he trusted them. Or, was trying to show that he trusted them.” Kunimi continued. Yamaguchi frowned.

“But Hinata pretty much trusts everyone. And most people trust him back at least a little bit.” Yamaguchi pointed out.

“But think about it. Shirabu-san had stayed away from everyone for a while, right? But Hinata wanted him to set anyways. Which means he would be eager to try and get him to trust him in return, so he’d come back out with the rest of us.” Kunimi explained.

“Hinata did go out and help get Asahi-san and Nishinoya to come back after they left the team. He might’ve seen this as a similar situation.” Shimizu added.

“So there’s a good chance he would be willing to throw Shirabu-san the key to the freezer, even though he was still inside.” Inuoka finished. Shirabu scowled.

“You guys are actually serious about this? There’s literally no proof I did anything! I don’t even have a reason to kill him!” He pointed out.

 _That’s a good point…._ Kindaichi frowned, trying to think. Why would Shirabu want to kill Hinata?

_“M-My name is Goshiki Tsutomu and I’m going to be the next ace at Shiratorizawa!” Goshiki was practically trembling with excitement. He reminded Kindaichi of a puppy._

_“Dear god there’s three of them now.” Tsukishima let out another annoyed sigh._

_“Bakeyama is mad because I mentioned how it’d be cool to get a toss from Shirabu-san, since he always tosses to Ushijima and he’s the number three ace, so Shirabu-san HAS to be a good setter.” Hinata grumbled, folding his arms._

Kindaichi blinked.

“Was it because… Hinata reminded you of Goshiki?” He asked hesitantly. Everyone looked at him, confused. Kindaichi saw Shirabu flinch slightly and knew he had to be on the right track.

“Tsukishima said it himself on the first day, Hinata and Goshiki were really similar. Not to mention, Shirabu was really upset over Goshiki’s death, especially when it seemed the rest of us were just going to move along quickly. That’s why he locked himself in his room, right?” Kindaichi continued.

“…Am I the only one still confused?” Koganegawa asked. Lev shook his head.

“I don’t really get it either. He killed Hinata because he thought he was insensitive to Goshiki-san’s death?” Lev frowned.

“It might be more than that. Remember the end of the first trial, after Goshiki’s execution? He nearly punched Tsukishima after he started to leave.” Futakuchi recalled. Kindaichi thought back to the end of the trial (despite wanting to never have to think about it again).

_“You convince us to vote for him, send him off to death, and now it’s just ‘let’s go’?” Shirabu growled, stalking up to him. Tsukishima stared down at Shirabu, eyebrow raised._

_“I’m sorry, I was unaware you wanted to make a suicide pact involving all of us by letting him live. What happened, happened. You said it yourself, we can’t rewind time.” Shirabu tightened his fist, but before he could do anything, Aone got in between them, pushing them apart._

“Yeah he was really upset. And if he got that angry with Hinata, Aone-san wouldn’t have been there to intervene.” Kindaichi realized. Shirabu was scowling at his feet, but wasn’t saying anything anymore.

“So…are we ready to vote?” Yamaguchi asked hesitantly. They all looked at each other before nodding.

“ _Alrighty then! You know the deal! Tap whoever you think the culprit is. Will you be right again? Or will your score end at 1 win?”_ Monokuma seemed eager for them to vote. Kindaichi bit his lip before pressing on Shirabu. There was really nobody else who could have done it. There was a minute as the votes were calculated before they appeared on screen. 12 votes for Shirabu. Another unanimous vote.

“ _Well well, you kids aren’t too bad at this! You are ab-so-lute-ly correct! The killer this time was none other than Shirabu Kenjirou!”_ Monokuma laughed happily.

“You _bastard!_ ” Lev and Inuoka were quick to restrain Kageyama. Tsukishima had a firm hand on Yamaguchi’s shoulder and even Aone looked ready to kill himself. Shirabu folded his arms, still scowling.

“I’m the bastard? _I’M_ the bastard? We all voted for Goshiki on baseless evidence, with no real proof, sentencing him to _die_ in the process, and then you all decided it wasn’t a big deal. But no, _I’M_ the asshole here.” He hissed.

“Newsflash, you voted for Goshiki too. Or did you forget that as well?” Tsukishima pointed out. Shirabu narrowed his eyes.

“I didn’t forget. But at least I didn’t pretend it never happened!” He snapped.

“You had to have planned this out somewhat. You managed to drug Kageyama and hide him in the kitchen after locking Hinata in. How long were you planning to kill Hinata?” Kunimi suddenly asked. Kindaichi’s mouth dropped and apparently he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t realized this. Shirabu just laughed darkly.

“Since the day after the trial. I saw him acting the same as normal, messing around with Kageyama and laughing and smiling and it hit me how unfair it was. How unfair it was for an idiot like him to still be alive while Goshiki wasn’t. They were so similar, yet Goshiki was the one who died. It pissed me off just to look at him. And it was so easy to slam the door on him after he tossed me the key. He didn’t even realize what was happening until he saw me leaving the kitchen.” Shirabu explained. Kindaichi was starting to hope that Inuoka and Lev let Kageyama go at him. He had never seen the setter so angry, not even during their middle school days.

“ _Wow the despair here is intense! I love it! It’s time to add fuel to the fire! Iiiiit’s PUNISHMENT TIME!”_ Kindaichi had nearly forgotten about the bear. He had nearly forgotten about what happens at the end of the trial. And by the looks of it, everyone else did as well. There were shouts of shock as a chain flew at Shirabu, a familiar collar wrapping around his neck and pulling the second-year out of the room before anyone could move. Their screens began to flicker. Kindaichi didn’t want to watch, but he also couldn’t look away. The screens finally focused and they saw Shirabu, standing in what looked like a maze of mirrors from a carnival. He looked suspicious (as he should be) and hesitated before starting to move forward, keeping a hand extended. As soon as his hand touched a mirror, it shattered, raining glass all over him. Shirabu flinched slightly but kept moving.

“Oh god, look at the reflections.” Kunimi mumbled. It was hard to make out, but Kindaichi swore he saw other members from Shiratorizawa in the reflections instead of Shirabu. There wasn’t any audio, but from Shirabu’s expression he could tell they weren’t saying good things. But the setter kept moving, slowly earning more and more cuts as he runs into more mirrors. Shirabu never stopped moving, something Kindaichi was impressed by. But the impressed feeling didn’t last long, as Shirabu did finally stop. He was looking at the mirror in front of him in horror. The camera angle changed and they saw Goshiki in the mirror. The reflection suddenly changed and Goshiki was dead, reaching out for Shirabu. The setter freaked out and begins running the other direction, falling back as he hits another mirror. Kindaichi’s eyes widened as he sees what Shirabu doesn’t. The mirror Shirabu had hit had fallen forward, knocking into another and creating a domino effect.

“He needs to move! Why isn’t he moving!?” Futakuchi said what they all were thinking. Finally, Shirabu noticed the mirrors falling, but it was too late. The final mirror, the one Goshiki had been in, was already falling. Kindaichi barely saw Shirabu’s scared expression before the mirror crashed down on top of him, the screen going dark soon after.

“Holy shit. Just… Holy shit.” Inuoka had his head in his hands.

“ _Well, that was fun! You know where the elevator is kiddos!”_ Monokuma laughed before vanishing. The room was silent.

“I-I…W-Why…” Kageyama couldn’t even form sentences. It wasn’t long before he just collapsed on his knees. Kindaichi winced, looking away. It was strange to see Kageyama, strong King of the Court, looking so weak and afraid.

“We should get out of here…” Futakuchi finally said. It seemed everyone else agreed, as they began to slowly make their way back to the elevator. There was no banter, no conversation, no requests to share rooms or anything. Just somber silence. Kindaichi felt a tug on his arm and glanced down. Kunimi was pulling on his arm and silently put intertwined their two hands. Kindaichi felt his cheeks flush but he didn’t mind this time, grateful for the comfort Kunimi was trying to offer. As soon as the elevator doors opened, Kageyama hurried out, practically sprinting down the hall.

“K-Kageyama wait!” Yamaguchi protested, but before they could run off, Kindaichi stepped forward.

“Let us handle it.” He was just as surprised as himself at the offer, but the others didn’t follow them as Kindaichi led Kunimi to the one spot he knew Kageyama would go. Sure enough, the gym light was on and they could hear a volleyball slamming onto the floor. A quick peek in the door revealed Kageyama, performing a jump serve nearly as terrifying as Oikawa’s, powered with his anger. He froze when he saw the two in the doorway. Kindaichi pulled his hand out of Kunimi’s and took off his jacket.

“Hey Kageyama. Send me a toss.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes i feel like the logic behind these trials are a bit iffy  
> then i remember last two trials of NDRV3 and i no longer feel bad.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you couldn't figure it out, the cast this time around is:  
> Kindaichi Yuutarou, Kunimi Akira, Tsukishima Kei, Yamaguchi Tadashi, Hinata Shouyou, Kageyama Tobio, Shimizu Kiyoko, Yachi Hitoka, Haiba Lev, Shibayama Yuuki, Inuoka Sou, Goshiki Tsutomu, Shirabu Kenjiro, Aone Takanobu, Futakuchi Kenji, and Koganegawa Kanji


End file.
